Saturday Slate: SEC Football Season Begins, Pitt Looks to Prove Itself, and Cincinnati Hosts the Troops

Back With a Bang South

• #23 Kentucky at #8 Auburn – NOON

Slowly but surely, every FBS conference is getting back to action. This week, the SEC joins the fray and kicks off with a top-25 matchup at noon.

Sure, this may only be a top-25 showdown because some teams are still missing from the rankings – namely, the Big Ten – but Auburn comes into this season with quite a bit of hype and Kentucky has a chance to play early-season spoiler.

Auburn returns freshman quarterback Bo Nix after he turned in the most productive freshman season in program history.

On the other side, Kentucky actually has a quarterback with senior Terry Wilson returning from an injury that sidelined him for the final 11 games of last season, in which the Wildcats were forced to replace him with receiver and former Ohio high school quarterback Lynn Bowden.

At the very least, Vegas seems to believe this game will be a tight matchup with the Tigers only favored by a touchdown. It could be worth your time on Saturday afternoon

Merry Pittsmas?

• #24 Louisville at #21 Pitt – NOON

Early-season college football is full of "is this team actually good?" games, and we've got ourselves another here with No. 21 Pitt looking to prove its 2-0 start isn't a fluke with a showdown against No. 24 Louisville.

The Panthers find themselves 2-0 entering Saturday's game after absolutely demolished Austin Peay 55-0 in the season-opener and pulling out a 21-10 win over Syracuse last week, but neither of those are wins you'd exactly write home about.

But Pitt will get a chance for a statement win against a ranked opponent in dire need of a big win itself, after a lopsided loss to Miami last week.

One of these teams is going to get a perception-building win on Saturday, the other is going to be quickly labeled "fraudulent" and promptly returned to mediocrity where it belongs.

A lot at stake!

Bearcats Hosting the Troops

• #22 Army at #14 Cincinnati – 3:30 p.m.

Our third and final ranked matchup of the pits Luke Fickell and his Bearcats against the undefeated troops.

Sitting at No. 22 in the latest AP Poll, Army has yet to be tested but just laid waste to its first two opponents, outscoring Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana Monroe by a combined score of 79-7.

Meanwhile, No. 14 Cincinnati enters the game equally untested, but similarly dominant after rolling Austin Peay 55-20 in its season-opener last week.

It's tough to call a make-or-break game this early in the season, but if either of these teams wants an outside chance at crashing the College Football Playoff, or even just earning a New Year's Six bid, they're going to have to go undefeated. And only one of these teams is walking away from this game without a notch in the L column.