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College football has now given us two straight overachieving weekends, with an excellent Week 1 and a Week 2 that was weak on paper but sufficient in memorability.
Week 3 seems certain to continue the run of quality, with several huge Saturday games, an above-average Thursday nighter, and plenty of good games on the undercards.
Below, I've attempted to rank each game according to a subjective understanding of stakes, quality, competitiveness, and what else is on at that time. This is a good weekend both in game quality and in arrangement, with Florida State-Louisville, Alabama-Ole Miss, and Ohio State-Oklahoma each having its own time slot all to itself, with backup options in each, if needed.
The late-night on Saturday is also very good. It always is.
[Removed weeknight games, for your Saturday convenience.]
Saturday
| WATCH THIS | Maybe watch this | This is a football game | |
| Noon ET | #2 FSU at #10 Louisville ABC, WatchESPN |
NDSU at #13 Iowa ESPN2, WatchESPN |
SC State at #5 Clemson ACC Network, WatchESPN |
| #25 Miami at App State ESPN, WatchESPN |
Georgia State at #9 Wisconsin BTN, BTN2GO |
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| Temple at Penn State BTN, BTN2GO |
Ohio at #15 Tennessee SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| MTSU at Bowling Green WatchESPN |
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| Akron at Marshall CBSSN |
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| Kansas at Memphis ESPNU, WatchESPN |
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| New Mexico at Rutgers ESPNews, WatchESPN |
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| Iowa State at TCU FS1, Fox Sports Go |
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| 12:30 ET | Vanderbilt at Georgia Tech ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 1:30 ET | Virginia at UConn WatchESPN |
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| 2 ET | NC A&T at Tulsa WatchESPN |
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| Idaho at Washington State Pac-12 Networks, P12N Live |
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| 2:30 ET | FAU at Kansas State FSN, Fox Sports Go |
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| 3 ET | EKU at Ball State WatchESPN |
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| UNLV at CMU WatchESPN |
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| Fresno State at Toledo WatchESPN |
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| WATCH THIS | Maybe watch this | This is a football game | |
| 3:30 ET | #1 Alabama at #19 Ole Miss CBS, CBSSports.com |
Colorado at #4 Michigan BTN, BTN2GO |
WKU at Miami (Ohio) WatchESPN |
| #22 Oregon at Nebraska ABC, WatchESPN |
JMU at North Carolina ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| SDSU at NIU CBSSN |
FIU at UMass WatchESPN |
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| Pitt at Oklahoma State ESPN, WatchESPN |
Boston College at Virginia Tech ESPNU, WatchESPN |
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| USF at Syracuse ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 4 ET | WMU at Illinois ESPNews, Watch ESPN |
N Colorado at Colorado State ROOT Sports |
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| ECU at South Carolina SEC Network, WatchESPN |
NMSU at Kentucky SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| UC Davis at Wyoming GoWyo.com |
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| 5 ET | Idaho State at Oregon State Pac-12 Networks, P12N Live |
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| 6 ET | EMU at Charlotte ConferenceUSA.com |
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| ULM at Georgia Southern WatchESPN |
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| ODU at NC State ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 6:30 ET | Delaware at Wake Forest ACC Network, WatchESPN |
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| WATCH THIS | Maybe watch this | This is a football game | |
| 7 ET | #17 Texas A&M at Auburn ESPN, WatchESPN |
Liberty at SMU WatchESPN |
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| Mississippi State at #20 LSU ESPN2, WatchESPN |
Troy at Southern Miss beIN Sports |
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| LA Tech at Texas Tech FSN, Fox Sports Go |
Navy at Tulane WatchESPN |
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| Maryland at UCF CBSSN |
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| South Alabama at UL Lafayette WatchESPN |
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| Army at UTEP ASN |
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| 7:30 ET | #3 Ohio State at #14 Oklahoma Fox, Fox Sports Go |
#12 Michigan State at #18 Notre Dame NBC, NBCSports.com |
North Texas at #23 Florida ESPNU, WatchESPN |
| #16 Georgia at Missouri SEC Network, WatchESPN |
Texas State at #24 Arkansas SEC Network, WatchESPN |
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| 8 ET | USC at #7 Stanford ABC, WatchESPN |
Portland State at #8 Washington Pac-12 Networks, P12N Live |
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| Duke at Northwestern BTN, BTN2GO |
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| 9 ET | Buffalo at Nevada CampusInsiders.com |
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| 10:15 ET | UCLA at BYU ESPN2, WatchESPN |
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| 10:30 ET | #11 Texas at Cal ESPN, WatchESPN |
Utah at San Jose State CBSSN |
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| 10:45 ET | Hawaii at Arizona Pac-12 Networks, P12N Live |
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| WATCH THIS | Maybe watch this | This is a football game |
Notes on the MUST WATCH games:
- This is a very well-paced Saturday, with one clear standout game in each of the first three slots, a good range of backups in each slot and a late slot in which I'm very confident.
- Florida State-Louisville, the first true all-top-10 matchup of the season, is rich with both subplots and Papa Johns food-product materials. Lamar Jackson, the human touchdown, against a defense that looked shaky for a half against Ole Miss despite having Derwin James ... and now he's out. Winner miiight be the ACC Atlantic favorite, if Clemson keeps looking suspect?
- Ole Miss goes for three in a row against Bama, the clear highlight in the middle shift. Bama's so out for revenge, it's denying it's out for revenge. Aaaand ... this might already be the last chance for anybody in the SEC to stop the Tide, to be honest.
- Ohio State-Oklahoma lost a little shine when Houston beat the Sooners, but it remains the biggest non-conference game of the regular season.
- In the late shift, all you want is passionate, medium-stakes football. UCLA-BYU delivers that, as both teams tend to play close games and already have harmful losses this year, and all-offense Cal amid #Pac12AfterDark looks like a fascinating test for a Texas that's no longer all-defense.
Elsewhere:
- Michigan State-Notre Dame is technically a ranked game, though I have a feeling its result will be like 2015's Week 3 Stanford-USC game, when the Trojans lost despite being No. 6 but no needles were really moved. Do you remember USC being No. 6 last year? No one does.
- A&M-Auburn has long been termed the 2016 Anxiety Bowl by my colleague Steven Godfrey, but the simultaneous LSU-MSU and UGA-Mizzou now seem qualified to split that title.
- Is Colorado scared of Michigan? Naw.
- Is North Dakota State scared of Iowa? Naw.
- Is Temple scared of Penn State? LOL, no.