And now, our traditional wrap.
First off, no one plays more than one FCS team this year. Huzzah!
Next up, teams that play more than one Power Five team, excluding Notre Dame and ACC teams as well as traditional rivalries:
- Pittsburgh (West Virginia, Tennessee)
- Duke (Northwestern, Kansas) (technically counts!)
- Colorado (Texas Christian, Minnesota)
- West Virginia (Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech)
And finally, each conference’s average rating for their collective out-of-conference schedules:
- Pac-12 (0.243)
- SEC (0.174)
- Big 12 (0.15)
- ACC (0.141)
- Big Ten (0.137)
Oh, how the mighty are fallen! Last season, the Big Ten was up front, thanks to those exciting early season games like Ohio State-Oregon and, um, Michigan-Washington. This year, the Pac-12 gets perhaps one last hurrah thanks to games like Oregon-Georgia, Utah-Florida, and Washington State-Wisconsin.
That’s a wrap for my take on the season preview. But I’ve got one more thing in store before we discuss what’s going to be on TV on Saturday.