We interrupt our out-of-conference preview to bring up this special preview of ACTUAL FOOTBALL! A quick introduction to the way the weekly previews work:

• Unless otherwise noted, games are on the Saturday of the week the preview is posted.
• The network is given in parenthesis. Most are straightforward, but ones that aren’t are ACC (not an actual network (yet), but syndicated content usually on local stations), CBSS (CBS Sports Network, which you may or may not have), and ACC/RSN (ACC games on regional sports networks, like FS South or NBC Sports Bay Area).
• I give predictions for all the games except for ones involving my alma mater, Georgia Tech.
• The list of games, generally, will only include matchups between FBS teams. I mostly do this because most FBS vs. FCS games are not interesting, and I don’t know enough about FCS teams to predict FCS vs. FCS matchups.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Saturday

Noon: Texas Southern @ Florida Agricultural and Mechanical (EPSNU): an exception to the above is that I will list FCS games for this sort-of week since there’s not a lot else going on and they’re on national TV. That said, I will just list them without providing commentary.

2:30: Oregon State @ Colorado State (CBSS): Arguably the most interesting game of the weekend (involving FBS teams, anyway), this will be an early test of both the progress the Beavers have made in year 2 of the current regime and whether or not the Rams will be for real Mountain West Mountain division contenders this year. This one could go either way, so I’m going to give CSU the edge since this is also the debut of their shiny new home stadium.

3:00: Portland State @ Brigham Young (ESPN)

6:30: Chattanooga vs. Jacksonville State (@Montgomery, AL; ESPN)

7:00: Colgate @ California Polytechnical (ESPNU)

7:30: South Florida @ San Jose State (CBSS): This is also a chance for San Jose State to show they’ve made strides, but I still think USF is going to be too much for them.

10:00: Stanford vs. Rice (@Sydney, Australia; ESPN): This one could get ugly, most likely due to being a Stanford blow out, or due to just being two rusty teams that flew halfway around the world to play a game in a strange land, under which Rice still won’t have a chance, just the score will be 20-0 instead of 51-10.

Sunday

7:00: Richmond @ Sam Houston State (ESPNU): We feel obligated to note that Hurricane Harvey is currently bearing down on the Texas Gulf coast. Football aside, hopefully Huntsville, TX is far enough inland to avoid the worst.