Week 3 will be a big week for college football and will feature a "first" this century. It's the first time the AP No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 all played games against ranked opponents since 1999.
This week the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 teams will play ranked opponents. Has not happened in September since 1999.
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) September 12, 2016
It will be an especially big week in the Big Ten. Illinois' homestand against the ACC Coastal Division champion Tar Heels was conspicuous in a league schedule heavy on cupcakes. This week, Ohio State and Michigan State travel to No. 14 Oklahoma and No. 18 Notre Dame. Nebraska hosts No. 22 Oregon too. Michigan and Northwestern also host Power Five teams in Colorado and Duke.
Let's dig into an exciting schedule for Week 3.
Thursday
Tom Herman held QB Greg Ward (L) out of last week's game against Lamar. (Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports)
Houston at Cincinnati (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.). This will be a homecoming for Tom Herman, the former Ohio State offensive coordinator who was born in Cincinnati.
At this point, college football fans are just curious if Houston has a loss somewhere on the schedule. Louisville looks tougher than it did in the pre-season, but Houston looks legit. An undefeated Houston is a lock for the playoff at this point.
Houston is an eight-point favorite.
Friday
Baylor at Rice (ESPN, 8 p.m.). Baylor, college football's nouveau riche (albeit not for long), is well-known for its garbage non-conference schedule. It concludes with a trip to Houston to play the Owls.
Arkansas State at Utah State (CBS Sports, 9 p.m.). 1-1 Utah State returns home from a thumping by USC to host an Arkansas State team still in search of its first win.
Arizona State at Texas San Antonio (ESPN2, 9:30 p.m.). Arizona State has taken to schedule home-and-homes with any and all teams in Texas, ostensibly to promote its "brand" in the Lone Star State. It travels to Texas Tech next year and to Texas State in 2024.
Saturday
Ohio at Tennessee (SEC Network, 12 p.m.). Ohio started its year with an exhilarating, albeit heartbreaking, loss at home to Texas State. It rebounded with 16-point win at Kansas and will hope to do the same at Tennessee on Saturday. May it finish what Appalachian State started.
Hmmm, not quite for TCU. Not this year. (Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)
Iowa State at Texas Christian (FOX Sports 1, 12 p.m.). The Horned Frogs aren't the team analysts thought they were. Iowa State is the team we thought they were, though. That's bad. Iowa State had a loss to an FCS squad in the first week. Iowa hammered it on Saturday.
Akron at Marshall (CBS Sports, 12 p.m.). Back in my day, this used to be a conference game in the MAC. The Thundering Herd left the MAC after 2005.
New Mexico at Rutgers (ESPN News, 12 p.m.). Rutgers struggled at times with a MEAC team last week. New Mexico isn't much better, but it could give Rutgers similar fits.
South Carolina State at Clemson (ACC Network, 12 p.m.). Clemson is having the regression this year I thought it would have last year when Chad Morris left for Southern Methodist. An FCS snack might be what the Tigers need right now.
Florida State at Louisville (ABC, 12 p.m.). This game will get ESPN College GameDay in lieu of Ohio State-Oklahoma. Houston's upset of Oklahoma in Week 1 may have contributed to that.
Louisville's strong start also contributed to that decision. Perhaps no program has a hotter start than Louisville. If we qualify that Louisville's schedule to date hasn't been that imposing, we redirect that praise to Lamar Jackson. Louisville's quarterback has been a touchdown machine through two weeks of the season.
Florida State is who we thought they would be. Far from a banal statement about a team that regularly recruits in the top three in the country, the ability for the Seminoles offense to replace a redshirt senior at quarterback with a redshirt freshman as a result of an injury in August speaks well to the talent surrounding the quarterback and the talent at the position. Clemson's slow start and the looming trip to Tallahassee next month suggest the Seminoles are the team to beat in the ACC and a safe pick for a playoff spot.
The Seminoles are a two-point favorite. Expect it to cover.
Temple at Penn State (BTN, 12 p.m.). Penn State lost by 17 at Temple last year. It might do it again this year.
North Dakota State at Iowa (ESPN2, 12 p.m.). Here's a game of some intrigue. The FCS' ongoing dynasty, five national championships and going, travels to Iowa City to take on the Big Ten West champion Hawkeyes. The Bison will hope to add Iowa to the list of FBS skulls it has acquired over years, prominently Kansas State (2013), Colorado State (2012), Minnesota (2011), and Kansas (2010).
Georgia State at Wisconsin (BTN, 12 p.m.). Wisconsin will eat another cupcake, which I suppose is earned after playing LSU to begin the season.
Miami at Appalachian State (ESPN, 12 p.m.). Miami, the college football program of the 1980s and the program analysts thought for sure was invincible with an unlimited endowment during that time, is now scheduling home-and-homes with Appalachian State.
San Diego State at Northern Illinois (CBS Sports, 3:30 p.m.). Fans accustomed to Northern Illinois as the class of the MAC should rethink their prior evaluations of the Huskies. They're 0-2 with losses by six at Wyoming and by 31 at South Florida to begin the season.
Colorado at Michigan (BTN, 3:30 p.m.). This will be a great game for 1990s nostalgia. Colorado's last visit to Michigan ended like this.
Bless Colorado for having some fun with this game. Harbaugh's opaque handling of pre-game depth charts led Colorado to have some fun with their own.
Michigan doesn't do a depth chart, so Colorado made a fake one for the week. Nice work by SID Dave Plati! pic.twitter.com/EQr0LloHrB
— Kevin Kugler (@kevinkugler) September 13, 2016
The Big Ten will say hello to an old friend in Lincoln on Saturday. (Scott Olmos-USA TODAY Sports)
Oregon at Nebraska (ABC, 3:30 p.m.). The foundation is finally crumbling at Oregon. Ohio State's (un)controlled demolition of Oregon in the 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship was the last chance Oregon had for a national championship in the foreseeable future. The bite in Oregon's offense is long gone and the defense struggles against nose bleeds, let alone competent offenses. No team hires Brady Hoke as a defensive coordinator for anything other than a stopgap.
Oregon, that team that would travel to a place like Neyland Stadium and hang 48 points on the home team, is a three-point underdog against an unranked Nebraska team.
Alabama at Ole Miss (CBS, 3:30 p.m.). Alabama travels to Oxford to play an Ole Miss program that has done the unthinkable in the Nick Saban era: beat the Crimson Tide twice and in back-to-back matchups. LSU did that in 2010 and 2011, but saying it out loud seems incredulous.
Alabama is an 11-point favorite.
Pittsburgh at Oklahoma State (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.). This is a great matchup as regional curiosity. These are some of the better of non-conference games two teams in different Power Five conferences could schedule.
Both had different second weeks. Pittsburgh is riding a relative high after beating a Penn State program too eager to ignore it this century. Oklahoma State kind of got screwed. Its student newspaper is now kindly asking MAC programs to forfeit wins against it, a sentence that is evidently laughable as I type it.
Western Michigan at Illinois (ESPN News, 4 p.m.). Western Michigan will look to go two-for-two against the Big Ten programs in the Land of Lincoln. It beat Northwestern in Evanston to start the season.
New Mexico State at Kentucky or East Carolina at South Carolina (SEC Network, 4 p.m.). The SEC Network, where you can make sure to watch the two worst programs the SEC has to offer.
One program's trash is another SEC program's starting quarterback. (Crystal LoGiudice-USA TODAY Sports)
Mississippi State at LSU (ESPN2, 7 p.m.). There might be a quarterback controversy in Baton Rouge. Coaches and fans alike seem eager to jettison Brandon Harris for Danny Etling.
Let that underscore how how much LSU's offense is a mess. A four-star quarterback that Ohio State aggressively pursued in 2014, who would likely have done well in Ohio State's quarterback stable, is falling out of grace at LSU in favor of a refugee from Purdue.
Texas A&M at Auburn (ESPN, 7 p.m.). Auburn is a four-point favorite on the plains. It might be time to ask what happens to Gus Malzahn if the Tigers lose this contest. Fans are growing restless as rival Alabama continues to soar and as Auburn looks little more than an 8-4 also-ran in comparison.
Maryland at Central Florida (CBS Sports, 7 p.m.). Maryland's non-conference schedule looks like a travel agency booked it. It traveled to Miami last week to play Florida International. This week: a trip to Orlando to play Central Florida with an implied trip to Disney World afterward.
Texas State at Arkansas (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.). Former Ohio State defensive coordinator Everett Withers takes his Bobcats to Fayetteville to play the No. 24 Razorbacks.
North Texas at Florida (ESPNU, 7:30 p.m.). Four seasons from two Florida linemen blocking each other in an upset loss to then-FCS Georgia Southern, Florida might be "back". The Gators look great. They at least atoned for an unconvincing win against Massachusetts with a destruction of Kentucky.
Michigan State at Notre Dame (NBC, 7:30 p.m.). Notre Dame dumped its Big Ten obligations (i.e. Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue) when it joined the ACC football as an affiliate member. However, it's rescheduled them as home-and-homes. Michigan State (2016, 2017) is first. The Irish host Michigan in 2018 and travel to Ann Arbor in 2019. It has Purdue on the schedule for 2020 and 2021.
Fans may remember the last contest between the two, which happened to be Michigan State's only loss in 2013. The refs in that game called such a tight game for the Spartans' defense that effectively discouraged the Michigan State secondary from riding receivers as it liked. The Spartans' offense couldn't muster enough points to offset the points the Irish were able to score, resulting in a 17-13 Notre Dame win in South Bend.
That's a shame since a Florida State-Michigan State BCS National Championship Game would have been a treat.
Notre Dame is an 8-point favorite in this contest.
Georgia at Missouri (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.). Georgia looked convincing in Kirby Smart's debut, taking down the ACC Coastal Champion Tar Heels in the Georgia Dome. Its next game is something the Georgia faithful would like to forget. The Bulldogs beat Nicholls by just two points.
Nicholls, by the way, is an FCS team with nine total wins in its last five seasons. A Big Ten team would be raked over coals for a week for that kind of effort.
Missouri's Barry Odom had a rougher debut. West Virginia manhandled the first year head coach's program in Morgantown to begin the season. A 40-point win for Missouri over Eastern Michigan last week week says little of the Tigers' quality this year.
Ohio State at Oklahoma (FOX, 7:30 p.m.). This is your personal game of the week. Stay tuned to Eleven Warriors for comprehensive coverage of this contest. In the meantime, enjoy a video I made seven years ago about Ohio State's last visit to Norman.
Duke at Northwestern (BTN, 8 p.m.). Home losses to a MAC team and a FCS team might mean Pat Fitzgerald's job is on the line. The schedule does not get much easier for Northwestern. It hosts Nebraska next week. Its next four games afterward are at Iowa, at Michigan State, against Indiana, and at Ohio State.
This botched hurricanrana notwithstanding, Stanford was near flawless in its last game against USC. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
USC at Stanford (ABC, 8 p.m.). This might be the most enjoyable Pac-12 series since Jim Harbaugh took over the Stanford program in 2007. His first year saw the biggest upset win in college football history. Two years later, his Cardinal manhandled the Trojans in the Coliseum, which was effectively a death knell for Pete Carroll's dynasty in Troy.
There has been no shortage of great contests between the two thereafter, though they've generally favored the Cardinal. Stanford is 7-3 against USC in the past ten years. Last year's contest even saw the Cardinal beat the Trojans twice, first in the Coliseum by a 41-31 margin. The two met again in the Pac-12 Championship Game, a contest that was not as close or exciting. Stanford won by 19.
The loudest cheers you hear for USC may come from Alabama. Not that Alabama wants for good graces among college football's selectors, but a Pac-12 championship for USC makes Alabama look that much better.
UCLA at BYU (ESPN2, 10:15 p.m.). BYU will hope for a better result against a Pac-12 team in Provo. The Cougars were in a position to tie the game at Utah last week with a PAT and 18 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. It opted to go for the win, but did not convert. Utah prevailed, 20-19.
Texas at California (ESPN, 10:30 p.m.). This is the return leg of a home-and-home that started last year. These series work great the extent to which they are regional curiosities. A blue blood football program from football's most talent rich state flying to the Bay Area to take on Cal, a meager with a program with a unique history, works great in that regard.
Hopefully, for Texas fans, Charlie Strong doesn't need his kicker to secure a win.
