College football gave us perhaps the greatest Week 0 in history as an appetizer, but the main course of Week 1 is on the horizon. The Labor Day weekend means meaningful games every day from Thursday through Monday, which sets up a great way to kickoff the 2024 season.
Many power teams will open with FCS or lower-conference opponents, but there are some serious power-on-power matchups to keep an eye on. At the top of the list, the only active coaches who have won multiple national championships meet when Kirby Smart’s top-ranked Georgia team faces Dabo Swinney’s No. 14 Clemson squad at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Elsewhere, No. 20 Texas A&M plays host to No. 7 Notre Dame, the program where Aggies coach Mike Elko became a nationally renowned defensive coordinator. No. 8 Penn State vs. West Virginia and No. 19 Miami vs. Florida give us reignited regional rivalries with College Football Playoff implications.
Additionally, there are a handful of games against lower-tier opponents to keep an eye on. Big 12 teams Colorado and No. 17 Oklahoma State played with fire by scheduling FCS powers North Dakota State and South Dakota State, respectively. No. 9 Michigan plays top Mountain West contender Fresno State. Without question, more teams could find themselves in trouble as the week goes on.
With all that said, here’s where odds sit for most of the top games of Week 1. Game odds are via SportsLine consensus.
The big games
No. 14 Clemson vs. No. 1 Georgia (-13.5) in Atlanta: The last time the Bulldogs and Tigers played in Week 1, it was 2021 and marked the beginning of the Bulldogs’ national championship run and the loosening of Clemson’s stranglehold on the ACC. Now, the two programs come into Week 1 from the opposite angle –…
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Author : Shehan Jeyarajah
Publish date : 2024-08-25 17:53:35
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