As usual, all times Eastern and all predictions wrong.

11:30: Coastal Carolina @ Delaware (CBSS): Both schools are 1-1 with losses to P4 teams, but the details matter. Delaware gave Vanderbilt all they wanted, Coastal gave West Virginia all they wanted. This favors the Blue Hens.

Noon:

• Georgia @ Arkansas (ABC): It figures to be a long season for the Hogs.
• Kent State @ Ohio State (FOX): The Buckeyes will grind the Flashes into a fine paste, but that won’t do much to help them move on from the collapse in Austin last weekend.
• North Carolina @ Clemson (ESPN): In my corner of the college sports take-industrial complex, an “anxiety bowl” is a game where a loss will send an already troubled program into a deep spiral, from which they may not recover. That’s certainly possible here, especially if Carolina wins.
• Tulane @ Kansas State (ESPN2): I admired Tulane’s bold scheduling for this season, but a loss to Duke and a 4 point win over South Alabama (that game has to be the “Madri Gras Bowl”, right?) doesn’t do a lot to inspire confidence against a K-State team that has had a very strong start.
• North Texas @ Texas State (USA): Texas State scheduled all of their out-of-conference games in the I-35 corridor, but it hasn’t exactly worked out for them, with two bad losses to Texas and UTSA. The Mean Green, meanwhile, took it on the chin against Indiana, but then they blasted UNLV and showed they’re still G6 contenders. I like them here.
• Arizona State vs. Kansas (Union Jack Classic @ London, England; FS1): Oy wots a Sun Devil, m8? (ahem) Anyway, I don’t know if either of these teams is any good, so I’ll pick the Sun Devils.
• Buffalo @ Pennsylvania State (BTN): Penn State all the way here.
• Akron @ Minnesota (BTN): It won’t be a problem here, but y’all, Minnesota was bad against Miss State last week.
• Bowling Green @ Iowa State (ESPNU): Clones all the way.
• Mercer @ Georgia Tech (ACCN): An 0-2 start isn’t surprising, though if you’d asked me I figured we would’ve started 1-1. But the way we wound up 0-2 is surprising. The defense is bad bad. An offense that prides itself on running the ball can’t. It’s my hope that once the schedule eases up a bit and the team plays more “normal” opponents that we can figure this thing out, because otherwise it’ll be a long season.

12:30: Eastern Michigan @ Wisconsin (Peacock/NBCSN): Wisconsin isn’t good, but that won’t be a problem here.

12:45: North Carolina State @ Vanderbilt (SEC): This is kind of a weird game. Vandy is 2-0 but the second was a 35-26 win over Delaware. NC State got punked by Virginia in game one, but they don’t figure to be bad. I like Vandy here, but I think ultimately we’re going to learn a lot about these teams.

1:00: Wyoming @ Central Michigan (ESPN+)

2:00:

• Southern Illinois @ Illinois (Peacock)
• Maine @ Boston College (ACCNX)

3:00: Temple @ Toledo (CBSS): It’s hard to pick a MAC team in most of their OOC games, but I like the Rockets here?

3:30:

• Southern California @ Rutgers (CBS): Rutgers is 0-2 with losses to the worst team in FBS the last several years (UMass) and the worst P4 team from last year (Boston College). Provided that the Trojans schedule travel better than the Rams do, they’ll win easily here.
• Florida State @ Alabama (ABC): Okay, so FSU did win this game last year. But this feels like the beginning of the end for Mike Norvell.
• Utah State @ Utah (“Battle of the Brothers”; FOX): This is actually a long, storied rivalry… but then BYU and Utah started moving up the tiers, and the Aggies didn’t. This game hasn’t been played much since 2009. Utah State did pip that 2012 game (their first win since 1997), but the Utes have won the three game since, I don’t see that changing here.
• Kentucky @ Texas A&M (ESPN): Aggies roll.
• Southern Methodist @ Louisville (ESPN2): It’s only mid-September, and yet here’s the game that could very well decide 2nd place in the ACC. I slightly like the Cards here, but this is a coin flip in the best way.
• Duquesne @ Washington State (USA)
• Texas-El Paso @ Michigan (BTN): Michigan should be 2-1 after this, since they’re going in at 1-1 and all.
• Wagner @ California (ACCN)
• Stonehill @ Massachusetts (ESPN+)
• Miami vs. Cincinnati (“Battle for the Bell” @ Cincinnati, OH; ESPN+)

4:00:

• Northern Iowa @ Iowa (FS1)
• Stanford @ Duke (The CW): Stanford and Rutgers are definitely vying for the “worst P4 team” slot this season. I guess I should take some solace in that they have to play an East Coast road game before playing us.
• Louisiana Tech @ Baylor (ESPNU): Bears roll.
• Western Kentucky @ Indiana (Peacock/NBCSN): Hoosiers roll.
• Ball State @ Liberty (ESPN+)

4:15: Mississippi State @ South Carolina (SEC): This figures to be a massive reality check for the Gamecocks, who are 2-0, yes, but those wins are over Kent State and Towson.

6:00:

• East Carolina @ Old Dominion (ESPN+)
• Charlotte @ Appalachian State (ESPN+)
• Florida International @ Florida Atlantic (“Shula Bowl”; ESPN+)

6:30: Marshall @ Missouri State (CBSS): I’m going to go with Marshall here.

7:00:

• Florida @ Auburn (ESPN): It’s a September SEC game, so expect cramps. Outside of that, I have no idea. Both of these teams have been rebuilt from the ground up, and we don’t have a lot of data. I’m favoring the Gators, but I can’t say that I really know why. I’ll mostly read all that as “keep an eye on this one”.
• Troy @ Missouri (SEC+)
• Nicholls @ Sam Houston State (ESPN+)
• Connecticut @ Southern Mississippi (ESPN+)
• Tennessee-Martin @ Memphis (ESPN+)
• Georgia Southern @ Jacksonville State (ESPN+)
• Western Michigan @ Rice (ESPN+)
• Delaware State @ South Florida (ESPN+)
• Georgia State @ Central Florida (ESPN+)
• Ohio @ South Alabama (ESPN+)
• Nevada @ Middle Tennessee State (ESPN+)
• Murray State @ Oklahoma State (ESPN+)

7:15:

• North Dakota @ Nebraska (BTN)
• Eastern Washington @ Washington (BTN)

7:30:

• Colorado @ Northwestern (FOX): Northwestern took a bye week… last week for some reason? If I had to guess they wanted to get as many games in the new Ryan Field as possible. So they’re 1-0, but with a big win over a usually strong FCS team (South Dakota State). Colorado has a new-look offense that may be the most sort of… honest? offense they’ve had under Deion. I like the Buffs here.
• Brigham Young @ Colorado State (CBS): BYU all the way.
• Michigan State @ Notre Dame (NBC): Irish roll.
• Louisiana State @ Mississippi (“Magnolia Bowl”; ABC): I don’t think this game will be all that interesting, given all the hype. My thinking is that LSU is just “that good”, and the Rebels aren’t. The main thing is that this isn’t being played in Baton Rouge or a neutral site: it’s in Oxford, and the usually genteel crowd figures to frothing at the bit to put one over Lane. Whether that’s enough to get the team past LSU is the question. I don’t think it is, personally, but the off-the-field may be enough to keep an eye on this one.
• New Mexico @ Oklahoma (ESPN2): Sooners roll.
• Virginia Tech @ Maryland (FS1): Speaking of things on in my corner of the college football internet, we’ve had this one circled for a while. Sure, LSU and Lane Kiffin returning to Oxford is the more hyped version of this story, but all off season we’ve talked about this game. James Franklin was a coordinator and “head coach in waiting” on Ralph Friedgen’s late Maryland staffs. But when Maryland fired Friedgen in late 2010, they passed over Franklin and hired Randy Edsall instead. Franklin went to Vandy, and then got hired by Penn State in 2014. Reportedly, Franklin has never forgotten the slight by Maryland. Here’s a sampling of some Penn State-Maryland scores from Franklin’s tenure in State College: 38-14, 66-3, 38-3, 59-0, 31-14, 30-0, 51-15, and 44-7. Sure, the Terps have been bad for a lot of that time, but c’mon. So yeah, I’ve got the Hokies all the way here.
• West Virginia vs. Virginia (@Charlotte, NC; ACCN): We may need to have a discussion about whether Virginia is Actually Good at some point this fall.

7:45: Kennesaw State @ Tennessee (SEC): Vols roll.

8:00:

• Texas-San Antonio @ Texas (SEC+)
• Alabama-Birmingham @ Louisiana (ESPN+)
• East Texas A&M @ Tulsa (ESPN+)

10:00:

• James Madison @ San Diego State (The CW): This game has very “unstoppable force vs. immovable object” energy and I am very here for it. I think I like the Aztecs at home, but it will definitely favor them if the score is more like “12-7” than “35-31”.
• South Dakota @ Boise State (CBSS)

10:30:

• North Dakota State @ Sacramento State (ESPN): This game has to be here because both teams needed a FBS opponent at the last minute, and well, here we are. That said, the Bison have looked ready for the jump and the Hornets… not so much.
• Northern Illinois @ Arizona (TNT): It’s not going well for NIU so far, and this doesn’t figure to help things.

11:00:

• Montana @ Oregon State (USA)
• Fresno State @ San Jose State (FS1): This is a rivalry game that’s now a non-con game (again), though I do find it baffling SJSU didn’t make it into the new-look Pac-12 (after all, they have “state” in their name). And this figures to be the most even test for the two teams so far. I think I’m leaning slightly toward the Silicon Spartans, but keep an eye on it.
• Purdue @ California-Los Angeles (BTN): Purdue is still… not good, but they’re not “worst team in the P4” contenders this year, I think. UCLA looks ascendant, though.