Week 3 was a good week for some big game non-conference games, certainly in the Big Ten. The conference delivered. Ohio State smashed Oklahoma. Michigan overwhelmed Colorado. Nebraska ultimately prevailed over Oregon. Northwestern even got in the win column with a victory over Duke.
Week 4 will see more conference games on the schedule. They're starting in the Big Ten. The ACC and the SEC have almost completely moved to conference schedules. Some of these games are marquee attractions as well. No. 11 Wisconsin travels to No. 8 Michigan State. No. 14 Tennessee hosts No. 19 Florida looking for its first win over the Gators since 2004.
Let's dive into the schedule.
Thursday
Clemson at Georgia Tech (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.). We know the ACC for carving out Thursday night for itself. It's peculiar that neither team is coming off a bye, which used to be how the ACC handled the schedule until recently. Credit Clemson for being smart about it. Clemson hosted South Carolina State on Saturday in a game with a shortened second half for sake of mercy. Georgia Tech is coming off a game against Vanderbilt.
Friday
Wyoming at Eastern Michigan (CBS Sports, 7:30 p.m.). This will be the second MAC game for Wyoming. It hosted Northern Illinois in the season opener in Laramie, winning 40-34.
Texas Christian at Southern Methodist (ESPN, 8 p.m.). Both Metroplex teams face off in a game of former Southwest Conference foes. SMU is still looking for a marquee win in the Chad Morris era. Whereas the Mustangs are 21-point underdogs, this would definitely count as a signature win.
Things may be unraveling in Troy. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
USC at Utah (FOX Sports 1, 9 p.m.). The wheels came off Troy's wagon immediately. Alabama pantsed it to begin the season. Stanford manhandled the Trojans in a 27-10 contest that was never that close.
Depending on which reports you want to believe, things are unraveling in short order for Clay Helton. These reports include whispers of fist fights with the head coach and mass transfers.
Utah is a three-point favorite.
Saturday
Kent State at Alabama (SEC Network, 12 p.m.). Alabama hosts Kent State, Nick Saban's alma mater. Incidentally, Kent State also lost to North Carolina A&T, which is just perfect for an Alabama non-conference game.
Georgia at Ole Miss (ESPN, 12 p.m.). This is a matchup of two teams that are ranked because of their conference affiliation and, ostensibly, for no other reason. Ole Miss is 1-2 with just the win over Wofford. Georgia is undefeated but its wins include a two-point home win over FCS Nicholls (which has nine total wins in the last five years) and a close call against a hapless Missouri squad last week.
Iowa at Rutgers (ESPN2, 12 p.m.). Nothing quite says "Big Ten football" like Iowa playing at Rutgers. I'm not sure it helps that Iowa is coming off a loss to an FCS team.
Florida State at South Florida (ABC, 12 p.m.). Florida State hits the road after a humiliation in Louisville to play South Florida. Some fans may remember that the first meeting between these programs came in 2009, Bobby Bowden's last year. South Florida beat the Seminoles 17-7 in Tallahassee.
Colorado State at Minnesota (ESPNU, 12 p.m.). Minnesota comes off a bye for the return leg of a home-and-home with Colorado State. Minnesota won last year's contest, 23-20, in Fort Collins.
Nevada at Purdue (ESPN News, 12 p.m.). Purdue is a six-point favorite over Nevada, as if Vegas expects Purdue to cover.
Michigan State's offense ran away from Notre Dame last week. (Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)
Wisconsin at Michigan State (BTN, 12 p.m.). Leave it to the Big Ten to have the No. 8 and No. 11 teams in the country play a league game most people will not watch on a channel most Americans do not have.
Syracuse at Connecticut (CBS Sports, 1 p.m.). It's natural for this to feel like a Big East basketball game because it would likely be more enjoyable if it were.
Miami (Ohio) at Cincinnati (ESPN News, 3:30 p.m.). The RedHawks travel south to Cincinnati to play for the Victory Bell, first contested in 1888. Miami last won this contest in 2005.
Boise State at Oregon State (FOX Sports 1, 3:30 p.m.). It should be embarrassing for Gary Andersen's Beavers program that it's a two-touchdown underdog at home to Boise State.
Brigham Young vs. West Virginia [in Landover, MD] (ESPN2, 3:30 p.m.). BYU's departure from the Mountain West has been a blessing for fans who love interesting non-conference games. It's behooved the Cougars to seek games from far and wide. In this case, BYU travels to Landover, Maryland to play West Virginia.
Duke at Notre Dame (NBC, 3:30 p.m.). Notre Dame will hope to get back on the winning track as it begins to dive into the ACC part of it schedule. This year's schedule is much more benign than last year's slate.
Pittsburgh at North Carolina (ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.). North Carolina will start its campaign in defense of its ACC Coastal Championship against Pittsburgh. North Carolina is a touchdown favorite against a Pittsburgh team that lost a shootout last week at Oklahoma State.
Two former Purdue QBs will start for SEC teams on Saturday. (Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)
Florida at Tennessee (CBS, 3:30 p.m.). If this is not the SEC's signature series, it's arguably CBS' signature SEC game. This will be CBS' 14th broadcast of the "Third Saturday in September" since 2000. No other SEC series reliably appears on CBS like this game.
The stakes are familiar. Tennessee thinks it's "back", and it has for the past few years. The problem: it can't beat the two biggest teams on its schedule. Tennessee hasn't beat Florida since Urban Meyer arrived in 2005. Tennessee hasn't beat Alabama since 2006, the year before Nick Saban arrived. Tennessee will never be "back" until it starts beating both those programs.
Tennessee's favored in this contest but that hasn't necessarily been the problem. Tennessee couldn't even beat lousy Florida teams on its schedule in the recent past. Despite winning the SEC East last year, Florida was no great team in 2015. Tennesse found a way to choke that game in Gainesville in epic fashion.
Florida will start Austin Appleby, a Purdue refugee, at quarterback in this contest.
Penn State at Michigan (ABC, 3:30 p.m.). It might be asking Penn State too much to beat Michigan in Ann Arbor this year. The odds (Michigan, -19) seem to indicate no confidence in the probability of a Penn State upset.
Wake Forest at Indiana (BTN, 3:30 p.m.). Indiana looms large on Ohio State's upcoming schedule. The Buckeyes host one of the biggest thorns in the side of its defense in two weeks.
Delaware State at Missouri (SEC Network, 4 p.m.). Missouri is digging these SEC non-conference scheduling practices.
Colorado at Oregon (Pac-12 Network, 5:30 p.m.). Colorado could not get it done last week in Ann Arbor, but it looked decent in defeat. That might be a low bar, but recall that Colorado hasn't been even "decent" in the past 15 years.
In fact, both teams met in the 2002 Fiesta Bowl the last time Colorado was "decent". The Pac-10 champion Ducks won the day against the Big XII champion Buffaloes.
Colorado might make a bowl game in 2016. It could help its case with a win in Eugene. Oregon is a 10-point favorite.
LSU at Auburn (ESPN, 6 p.m.). Les Miles may or may not be on the hot seat after the season-opening loss against Wisconsin. Gus Malzahn is on the hot seat, though. The Montgomery Advertiser is already exploring the mechanics of his and his staff's buyout, which is a canary in the coal mine.
Houston at Texas State (ESPNU, 7 p.m.). It's a showdown of former Ohio State coordinators, Houston head caoch Tom Herman vs. Texas State head coach Everett Withers.
Northwestern players celebrated in Lincoln last year. The Huskers will try to repay the favor. (Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports)
Nebraska at Northwestern (BTN, 7:30 p.m.). The "Battle of NUs" has been a great addition to the catalog of Big Ten contests since Nebraska joined the conference five years ago.
It started with a surprise Northwestern win in Lincoln. Nebraska won the next two games by a combined four points before routing the Wildcats in Evanston in 2014. Northwestern returned the favor with another win in Lincoln last year.
Northwestern may be back in the saddle. It lost its first two games to competition from the MAC and the FCS ranks before beating a respectable ACC team, Duke, last week. Nebraska, meanwhile, might be the tentative favorite to win the Big Ten West.
The Huskers are an eight-point favorite.
Oklahoma State at Baylor (FOX, 7:30 p.m.). No column is complete without a hot sports take, so here's one: Baylor is done as team to whom fans are compelled to pay attention. The Bears established themselves as college football's nouveau riche. There may not have been a bigger story in the 20-year history of the "Big XII" than Baylor's rise from obscurity. Trips to (and losses in) the Fiesta Bowl and Cotton Bowl followed.
That, however, may be contingent on Art Briles, who operated a program that thumbed its nose at federal law. Briles is gone and the Department of Education is still snooping around Waco. Mass transfers have followed.
We may not have seen the fallout from this hot sports take just yet because Baylor, notwithstanding its recent spotlight, routinely scheduled garbage for non-conference opponents. We may start to see it in league play. Baylor is an eight-point favorite against Oklahoma State, but count this author as suspicious of that line.
South Carolina at Kentucky (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.). Both programs are in a three-way race with Vanderbilt for last place in the SEC.
Stanford will try to sweep the LA Pac-12 programs on Saturday. (Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports)
Stanford at UCLA (ABC, 8 p.m.). Stanford is the preseason favorite to win the Pac-12 North. Both UCLA and USC were the preseason favorites to win the Pac-12 South. Rematches in conference championship games are something conference should try to discourage as best they can, but the Pac-12 has Stanford playing both Southern California teams back-to-back.
Louisville at Marshall (CBS Sports, 8 p.m.). Make Louisville Conference-USA Again.
Arkansas at Texas A&M (ESPN, 9 p.m.). It's still odd to see this as an SEC game instead of an old Southwest Conference game.
Arkansas is an interesting team at the moment. The win at Texas Christian catapulted into the AP Poll. We can qualify that TCU is not that good this year---it in fact struggled with FCS South Dakota State the week prior.
Bielema's team could still be en route to a four-loss season, but it's 3-0 start underscores something observers have noted about Bielema's program in Fayetteville. His is the only program that can physically match Alabama. The Razorbacks have not beat Alabama since 2006, but they've come close in the past two years.
The Razorbacks host Alabama in two weeks, after an FCS snack next week.
California at Arizona State (ESPN2, 10 p.m.). California won both games in its series with Texas, not exactly an outcome fans could've anticipated when the series was announced years earlier. It now begins the Pac-12 schedule against an Arizona State team that looks little more than also-ran in the Pac-12 South. The Sun Devails needed a fourth-quarter comeback to beat Texas San Antonio last week.
Air Force at Utah State (ESPNU, 10:15 p.m.). Air Force is 2-0 and will enter this game off a bye as three-point favorites.
Washington at Arizona (Pac-12 Network, 10:30 p.m.). Curious if Stanford is the only real candidate to win the Pac-12 this year? Stay up and watch Washington on Saturday night.
Washington might be the biggest story to happen out west this year. (Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports)
The No. 9 Huskies are a trendy pick to win the Pac-12. They're 3-0 with wins by a combined 118 points. The competition is not exactly a murderer's row (Rutgers, Idaho, Portland State), but the Huskies have the Pac-12's best scoring defense and the offense is back to thriving on the pre-snap motions that made Boise State so difficult under Chris Petersen over a decade ago.
Arizona is not exactly a great measuring stick. It lost to a mediocre BYU team in the season opener. It trailed Grambling State 21-3 at halftime. A 19-point win over a perpetually jet-lagged Hawaii team is a noisy signal of quality.
However, it's a conference road game. Washington doesn't have a lot of good conference road games this year, excepting an Oregon team that's not that good and a Utah team that could be pretty good.
Washington may win big in Tucson, which would further raise questions about whether this is the year Washington wins its first conference championship in 15 years.
