As if conference realignment shuffling isn’t tough enough to follow, 2023 also marks the beginning of a significant amount of television network shuffling. Big Ten games are now on Fox, NBC, CBS or their cable affiliates. Each Saturday’s spotlight SEC game will split time with the Big Ten on CBS before shuffling off entirely to the ESPN stable of networks in 2024. The Big 12 will remain split between Fox and ESPN, while the ACC and ESPN’s networks will be partners for the foreseeable future. As for the Pac-12, it’s in its final year of a split between the Fox and ESPN networks before the conference’s likely demise, its members dispersed to other conferences.
And now, actual football.
All times Eastern.
Virginia vs. No. 12 Tennessee | ||
Colorado at No. 17 TCU | ||
East Carolina at No. 2 Michigan | Peacock (streaming only) | |
Arkansas State at No. 20 Oklahoma | ||
Louisiana Tech at SMU | ||
Northern Illinois at Boston College | ACC Network | |
Ball State at Kentucky | SEC Network | |
Fresno State at Purdue | Big Ten Network | |
Utah State at No. 25 Iowa | Fox Sports 1 | |
Bowling Green at Liberty | CBS Sports Network | |
Portland State at No. 15 Oregon | Pac-12 Network | |
No. 3 Ohio State at Indiana | ||
Boise State at No. 10 Washington | ||
Rice at No. 11 Texas | ||
Tennessee State at No. 13 Notre Dame | ||
Massachusetts at Auburn | ||
Wofford at Pittsburgh | ACC Network | |
Towson at Maryland | Big Ten Network | |
Buffalo at No. 19 Wisconsin | Fox Sports 1 | |
South Florida at Western Kentucky | CBS Sports Network | |
Southeastern Louisiana at Mississippi State | SEC Network | |
California at North Texas | ||
Morgan State at Richmond | NBC Sports Washington | |
Nevada at No. 6 USC | Pac-12 Network | |
New Mexico at No. 23 Texas A&M | ||
Army at Louisiana Monroe | NFL Network | |
Washington State at Colorado State | CBS Sports Network | |
Texas San Antonio at Houston | Fox Sports 1 | |
West Virginia at No. 7 Penn State | ||
Texas Tech at Wyoming | ||
No. 21 North Carolina vs. South Carolina | ||
Toledo at Illinois | Big Ten Network | |
Middle Tennessee at No. 4 Alabama | SEC Network | |
South Alabama at No. 24 Tulane | ||
Old Dominion at Virginia Tech | ACC Network | |
Northern Arizona at Arizona | Pac-12 Network | |
Sam Houston at BYU | Fox Sports 1 | |
Coastal Carolina at UCLA | ||
Idaho State at San Diego State | CBS Sports Network |
The Coach Prime Football Bowl Subdivision era begins as Colorado visits TCU. Buffaloes Coach Deion Sanders dynamited the roster, bringing in 86 new players — 53 via the transfer portal — and keeping only 10 from last season’s (admittedly dismal) team. Whether this works immediately is obviously unknown, but Colorado’s Vegas over/under win total of 3.5 suggests it may be a rough year for the Buffaloes. If there’s anyone who knows about exceeding expectations in his first season, it’s Horned Frogs Coach Sonny Dykes, who in his maiden go-round led TCU to the national title game. But he has to replace his starting quarterback, top two running backs, top three pass-catchers, top two offensive linemen, top three defensive players and offensive coordinator, who left for Clemson. And while TCU isn’t starting over like Colorado, it’s going to be awfully hard to replicate what the Horned Frogs accomplished last season. …
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This isn’t a superlative opening Saturday of college football, and the midafternoon slate is the least superlative portion of the day. The best of the bunch is Boise State-Washington, a game featuring a pair of fun quarterbacks. The Broncos’ Taylen Green, all 6-foot-6 of him, rushed for 102 yards and two touchdowns after coming off the bench in last season’s opener against Oregon State, then rushed for 105 yards and two more scores — again off the bench — three games later to finally nail down the starting spot. The Huskies’ Michael Penix Jr. followed Coach Kalen DeBoer from Indiana to Washington and finally shook off the injuries that had held him back, throwing for 4,641 yards and 31 touchdowns as the Huskies went 11-2. Penix probably would have gotten some draft attention from NFL teams but came back for his sixth and final college season, and Washington is among the favorites in what could be an exciting final Pac-12 season (as we know it). … Rice-Texas is almost certainly going to end in a Longhorns blowout, but it might be worth checking out to see whether exalted recruit Arch Manning gets a few snaps. He might be third on the depth chart behind starter Quinn Ewers and Maalik Murphy, however. …
Conference realignment killed off (or is in the process of killing off) some regional rivalry games, and West Virginia-Penn State was one of the first to go. The Mountaineers and Nittany Lions played every season from 1947 to 1992, but then Penn State joined the Big Ten, and that was that. The series resumes for a home-and-home this year and next. The Nittany Lions have aspirations of finally getting over the Michigan-Ohio State hump in the Big Ten’s East Division, something that has been tantalizingly elusive for Coach James Franklin. He has won 11 games four times in his nine seasons in Happy Valley but has only one conference title (in 2016) and no playoff appearances to show for it. Penn State has perhaps the country’s best backfield in sophomores Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, a sophomore quarterback (Drew Allar) who is drawing all kinds of hype and studs all over the defense. West Virginia Coach Neal Brown was seen as lucky to be back after going 22-25 in his first four seasons in Morgantown, and a defense that was bad in 2022 (No. 104 in SP+, a measure of overall efficiency) must be rebuilt after some departures.
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