College Football Week 1 Thread

The real college football season starts today!

Some ground rules here. Last week, we already saw a commenter get banned because they wouldn’t stop talking shit about college football, despite multiple warnings. The core LGM crew are all big football fans, you all know this. You don’t have to like football. It’s tremendously easy to not comment on a post. We cover a lot of ground here and so if you don’t like something, don’t comment on it.

Let me give you a lesson here. As is well known, I really dislike fantasy literature. But our co-blogger Abigail is not only a fantasy writer, but a quite acclaimed one. I am glad she blogs about this! In fact, I wish she did it more often!! I simply don’t comment on those posts because they are not for me. But they are for lots of you and that’s super great!! That’s how you should think about the football posts. You don’t have to like football, but if you start trolling them, you won’t be here.

One additional point that came up in comments last week. A lot of people still hold to the idea that college football is peon ball. My friends, it is not. The courts have destroyed that world. The kids get paid. Even backups in Power 4 conferences are pulling in 5 figures a year. For most of these players, very few of which will ever seen an NFL regular season game, this is making money on their athletic talents. The best players are making millions, and again, the best in college does not mean NFL quality per se. This is a good thing. Here’s a story from ESPN this week on how much top players are making.

The top 10 games of the week, based on the Athletic’s rankings of all FBS teams and in order of when the games start. This is using last week’s rankings since there were so few games in Week 0 that there wasn’t any reason to re-rank them.

1. #23 Boise State at #59 South Florida (+6.5), Thursday, 5:30, ESPN. Boise ought to be pretty good again. But honestly, South Florida has a lot coming back too. If the Bulls had a home stadium, I’d feel better about picking them but they play at Raymond James in front of not a lot of fans. It’s hardly the easiest opener for Boise. It’s going to be really hot and humid for Idaho kids. No way to replicate that. So this could be pretty close and I’ll take a shot at the Bulls as a home dog. (Saturday update: Woo hoo! Suck it Boise! Total asswhooping of that blue field glorified community college)
2. #30 Auburn at # 28 Baylor (+2.5), Friday, 8, Fox. Not sure I get the slight surge in people believing in Auburn. Hugh Freeze, scumbag that he is, has recruited well to Auburn but it sure hasn’t shown up on the field. It could this year, OK, but if it doesn’t, he might get canned, this time for reasons not to do with buying sex for recruits. Meanwhile, Baylor should have a hot offense. If they can stop anyone, they could be competitive for the Big 12 title. I certainly will take Baylor +2.5 here. (Auburn sure handled Baylor easily, 38-24).
3. #31 Georgia Tech at #51 Colorado (+5), Friday, 8, ESPN. This is a hard one to talk about because who knows what Colorado looks like. Deion has never coached without his son as QB I think. But the Colorado defense actually got kind of good last year. Georgia Tech is a solid team, yes. If I had to bet here, I’d take Colorado as a home dog, though anyone with intelligence will avoid anything to do with laying money on them until we see what’s up here. (Forgot to note that this was a Friday game–in any case, Georgia Tech won by 3, so it was a good guess that the Buffs weren’t good but weren’t that bad).
4. #3 Texas at #4 Ohio State (-1.5), 12, FOX. Oh my. Now this is an opening week game for the ages. I’m taking Ohio State though. I don’t think Steve Sarkisian is a good enough coach to lead a team to the top and we know very well that Ohio State can get there after their astounding playoff run last year. Yes, the Buckeyes have a new QB, but Arch Manning isn’t that experienced at Texas either. Plus Will Howard wasn’t that good last year anyway for Ohio State. Jeremiah Smith is basically the second coming of Calvin Johnson. And the atmosphere in Columbus is going to be nuts, despite Ohio State fans being a lower form of life. So I will take the Buckeyes with the odds here.
5. #53 Syracuse at #26 Tennessee (-13.5), 12, ABC. Tennessee could easily be a bit overrated with its messy QB situation. But Syracuse lost basically everyone. It’s a big spread, but I take Tennessee, largely because I think Syracuse is probably pretty bad.
6. #9 Alabama at #49 Florida State (+13.5), 3:30, ABC. This sure seemed exciting when it was scheduled. Then FSU went 2-10 last year. Their solution was hiring a washed up Gus Malzhan as the new OC. Maybe that works. Maybe. Bama was down last year too and honestly I don’t see Kalen DeBoer as being a guy who is going to repeat the Nick Saban regime. But against FSU in collapse? I doubt the Seminoles are going to win only 2 games, but I will take Bama with the points here. I don’t think these teams are close in quality at all.
7. #58 UTSA at #20 Texas A&M (-24.5), 7, ESPN. OK, sure, A&M is better. But UTSA is actually a very solid program and has a real shot to win the Sun Belt. A&M has a hell of a running attack, yes. But it also has a history of slow starts against overmatched opponents. So with that spread, I’ll take the Roadrunners.
8. #10 LSU at #2 Clemson (-4), 7:30, ABC. This is a fun opening week matchup against two very highly ranked teams that I’m not sure anyone really trusts. The line suggests that people aren’t crazy confident in Clemson, despite the high rankings. Can Dabo Swinney adapt to the modern era of coaching, which he hates. The track record of former multiple title winning coaches who go into something of a fallow period and then come back to the very top is not strong and I don’t think Dabo is the man to do it. Also, can Clemson stop the run? They sure couldn’t last year. Meanwhile, LSU with Brian Kelly at the helm has consistently disappointed early in the season. They both have experienced QBs returning with strong draft possibilities, if not guaranteed. And can LSU protect the passer? We’ll find a lot out this week about both teams. Because I am not favorable to Clemson, I’ll take LSU +4.
9. #6 Notre Dame at #13 Miami (+2.5), Sunday, 7:30, ABC. Mario Cristobal is an excellent recruiter and motivator, but he is not a good in game coach and I know this from his time at Oregon. His problems at Oregon have repeated at Miami. The team is better but still a big step below the top. Meanwhile, Marcus Freeman has not only proven to be an excellent coach but he’s managed the incredible feat of not being a loathsome figure while coaching a team with the most insufferable fan base in the country. I am highly skeptical of Miami this year without Cam Ward as well. So this is an easy call for me to go with the Irish.
10. #35 TCU at #50 North Carolina (+3), Monday, 8, ESPN. Oh boy, Bill Belichick as a college coach. I am highly skeptical. I think TCU is probably better than this–they have a good QB and a solid defense. North Carolina has a very old man whose attention is on his half-century younger girlfriend. There’s been an absolute ton of roster turnover in Chapel Hill too. TCU seems like a very solid road favorite here.

Last week I was 2-2 against the spread. I’ll update it every week going forward.