College Football: What’s With the Lackluster Week 1 Schedule?

Photo: thebiglead.com

College football is finally back!  Let’s take a second and be grateful that football season is finally upon us and cooler weather is on the way.  Now that you’ve done that, let’s talk about something that is disappointing: the lack of appealing games in week one.  Every college football fan knows the first week of the season always brings an abundance of good matchups to escalate fans’ excitement level through the roof.  But as I was looking at this year’s week one schedule, I was very disappointed with what I saw.  There’s only one ranked matchup from last Saturday’s games and this Thursday-Monday’s games combined.  ONE!  That is unbelievable and honestly, inexcusable for the NCAA.

Photo: athlonsports.com

Last Saturday had a fairly intriguing game between #8 Florida and Miami, but it wasn’t the matchup of old between these two schools.  Florida has underperformed for a while now and Miami hasn’t featured a contending team in years.  That game was far more interesting to the people in the state of Florida than to anyone else around the country.  Tomorrow night we will see four ranked teams in action, but none of the matchups are at all interesting.  Clemson, who opens as #1 for the first time in school history, is playing a Georgia Tech team with a new head coach after struggling mightily for a decade or more.  #17 UCF is playing Florida A&M, #12 Texas A&M is playing Texas State, and #14 is playing BYU.  Unless you’re among the most hardcore college football fans in the country, none of these games are appealing.

Other week one games (Friday-Monday) that feature a nationally ranked team include:

#18 Michigan State vs. Tulsa

#19 Wisconsin vs. South Florida

#5 Ohio State vs. Florida Atlantic

#21 Iowa State vs. Northern Iowa

#24 Nebraska vs. South Alabama

#13 Washington vs. Eastern Washington

#2 Alabama vs. Duke

#15 Penn State vs. Idaho

#25 Stanford vs. Northwestern

#22 Syracuse vs. Liberty

#3 Georgia vs. Vanderbilt

#6 LSU vs. Georgia Southern

#7 Michigan vs. Middle Tennessee

#20 Iowa vs. Miami (Ohio)

#10 Texas vs. Louisiana Tech

#23 Washington State vs. New Mexico State

#4 Oklahoma vs. Houston

#9 Notre Dame vs. Louisville

Which brings us to the ONLY game in week one that features two ranked teams: #11 Oregon vs. #16 Auburn.

So there you have it.  While I am excited that college football is back, the week one schedule is about as weak and unappealing as it gets.  It’s really head-scratching that this is what the NCAA presents its fans with after not having college football for seven months.  The best game shouldn’t be a #11 vs. #16.  There should be at least 4-5 ranked matchups to get the fans excited for the upcoming season.

Photo: Marvin Gentry/USA Today Sports

One of my biggest questions is why the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game in Atlanta is between Alabama and Duke.  This game is always between a good SEC team and a good ACC team.  While Alabama is certainly a formidable team, it’s ridiculous that Duke is their opponent.  The purpose of this “Kickoff” game hosted in Atlanta every year is to get college football fans all across the country excited by featuring two good teams.  This year’s game will be over by the end of the first quarter.  I can name nine other ACC teams who I feel confident would be a more appealing matchup to folks around the country than Duke against the powerhouse Alabama.

I have yet to look at the week two schedule, but I’m really hoping it gives the general college football fan a lot more to get excited about than this week does.  I have no answers as to why this year’s week one schedule is so weak.  Maybe the NCAA is just banking on everyone watching anyway simply because college football is finally back and fans will take what they can get.  But when you get great week one matchups every single year that ALWAYS have an impact on the rest of the season, it is very disappointing to get on the internet and look at this pitiful lineup of week one games.

Garett