Welcome back.

As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

Noon: North Carolina vs. Texas Christian (Aer Lingus Classic @ Dublin, Ireland; ESPN): Year 2 of the Bill Bellichick era at Carolina is here, and I’m sure Tar Heel fans are more than ready to talk about actual football. The problem is that there’s not a lot to indicate that this won’t be much different than last season’s opening debacle in Chapel Hill, even if this is an ocean away.

3:00: San Jose State @ Southern California (NBC): Hey, so you’ve probably at least heard that there’s a movie called The Odyssey out, right? (I saw it, it’s great.) And you’re probably aware that it’s based on a 2,000 year old epic poem? So you probably have had multiple opportunities to learn the broad strokes of the Trojan War, yeah?

So if you aren’t face palming yet, here’s why you should. The Trojans, somewhat famously, are the losers of the Trojan War, the framing conflict of the story. And they lose to the Greeks, who trick them using a giant wooden horse filled with their dudes. And one of the major Greek factions? The Spartans! As in, the San Jose State Spartans! Now, look, USC are going to be massive favorites here, but if they field another vintage Lincoln Riley defense and let SJSU hang around too long in this one, some serious questions are going to be asked.

3:30: North Carolina State @ Virginia (ESPN): Yes, this one does count as an ACC game (though if I recall correctly his was originally scheduled as a non-conference game but with the ACC (mostly) going to a 9 game conference schedule they just rolled it in). All that said, both teams have massive questions, but I like NC State here. Mostly. Probably.

5:30: Jacksonville State @ North Dakota State (CBSS): The Fargodome gets its first FBS game early, and the thing is, they’re probably going to win! The usual issue for the FCS to FBS transition is depth, but NDSU has been so good for so long that if there were a team that felt like it was going to make the transition with verve, it’d be them.

7:00:

• New Mexico State @ Florida State (The CW): Surely, Mike Norvell can handle this one.
• Hawaii @ Stanford (ACCN): Stanford is going to be bad this year, as in bad enough that I think Hawaii has a fairly good shot to win this one.

10:00: Memphis @ Nevada-Las Vegas (FOX): This could well be the G6 vs. G6 game of the year. Both of these schools see themselves as playoff contenders, but I think UNLV is better. We’ll find out tomorrow(!) night.