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Good gravy, it feels good to be writing posts like this one again. Bookmark it for your viewing pleasure this weekend.
GAME OF THE WEEK
Michigan vs. Alabama (Arlington, TX), Saturday, 8:00 pm ET, ABC
The miracle of early season neutral site games gives us this matchup of preseason top 10 teams right on the first Saturday of the year. Denard Robinson is not the kind of quarterback Alabama sees too often, while Alabama's defense is not the kind the Wolverines see frequently either. We'll know a lot about both of these teams once it's over.
Thursday, August 30
South Carolina at Vanderbilt, 7:00 pm ET, ESPN
Steve Spurrier's assessment of Vandy: "They are trying to play football at Vanderbilt. They really are. They're spending the money." Does that count as bulletin board material?
Texas A&M at Louisiana Tech (Shreveport, LA), 7:30 pm ET, ESPNU
It's too bad that this game won't be on a channel that has wider carriage than ESPNU. Two Air Raid teams playing in the middle of a tropical storm? What could go wrong?
UPDATE: This game has been postponed to October 13 due to the storm. Be safe out there.
Friday, August 31
Tennessee vs. NC State (Atlanta), 7:30 pm ET, ESPNU
It's a battle of two future NFL quarterbacks with Tyler Bray and Mike Glennon. It's also a battle between a coach who always says interesting stuff and one that couldn't be less interesting.
Saturday, September 1
Buffalo at Georgia, 12:21 pm ET, SEC Network
See, the Big Ten isn't the only conference that has MACrifice games!
Bowling Green at Florida, 3:30 pm ET, ESPN
With the quarterbacks rotating on a quarter-by-quarter basis, it's clear that Florida is not in any way treating this game as a glorified scrimmage. Not that it matters anyway, given the great historical success the team has had against MAC teams from Ohio in the first game of the season.
Auburn vs. Clemson (Atlanta), 7:00 pm ET, ESPN
With as shorthanded as these two teams seem to be getting heading into this game, they might have to stage a pregame draft of Tennessee and NC State players who didn't play the night before.
North Texas at LSU, 7:00 pm ET, ESPNU
The entire sum of intrigue I can come up with for this one is that North Texas head coach Dan McCarney has faced LSU before as an assistant coach at Florida. Yep, that's about it.
Jacksonville State at Arkansas, 7:00 pm ET, PPV
This is the first of two opportunities for JSU to snag some SEC lucre this year.
Southeastern Louisiana at Missouri, 7:00 pm ET, PPV
Missouri definitely got the memo on how to fit in with this league when it comes to early season non-conference games.
Central Arkansas at Ole Miss, 7:00 pm ET, PPV
Jackson State at Mississippi State, 7:00 pm, Fox Sports South
I'm out of things to say about SEC vs. I-AA games.
Sunday, September 2
Kentucky at Louisville, 3:30 pm ET, ESPN
Kentucky could really use this game because its SEC slate is tough.