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40 schedule observations for this college football season
By Pat Forde July 6, 2015 7:24 PM Yahoo Sports
It’s the middle of summer, and man cannot live by “Shark Week” alone. So it’s time for a college football intervention. Forty observations on the 2015 schedule that you can use to amaze and entertain your friends:
1. Toughest September: BYU. The Cougars open at Nebraska, home against Boise State, at UCLA, at Michigan. Just for kicks, BYU follows that Michigan game with a short-turnaround Friday contest against Connecticut on Oct. 2. Being an independent is fun, isn’t it, Bronco Mendenhall?
2. Toughest October: Miami. The Hurricanes are at Cincinnati on a Thursday, then at Florida State, home against Virginia Tech and Clemson, and at Duke on Halloween. Combined 2014 record of those opponents: 49-18.
3. Toughest November: Baylor. The Bears are at Kansas State on a Thursday night, home against Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State and at TCU on the day after Thanksgiving with the Big 12 (undisputed!) title perhaps on the line in that one.
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As per usual, Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide face a difficult slate this season. (AP)
4. Toughest schedule, period: Alabama has at least two slobberknockers a month. Every month. In September it has Wisconsin and Mississippi. In October it visits Georgia and Texas A&M – the latter coming off a bye while the Crimson Tide is coming off a rumble with Arkansas. In November it plays LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn – the final two on the road. If anyone complains about the Tide scheduling Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe and Charleston Southern, tell them to look at the schedule in its entirety and hush.
5. Kudos to bluebloods daring to leave home early. Ohio State’s Labor Day game at Virginia Tech is the Buckeyes’ first on-campus road opener since 1998, when they played at West Virginia. Texas’ Sept. 5 game at Notre Dame is the Longhorns’ first true road opener since 1995, when they played at Hawaii. Michigan’s Sept. 3 opener at Utah is the Wolverines’ first true road opener since 1998, at Notre Dame.
6. Jim Harbaugh takes an eight-game, five-year-old winning streak as a college coach into Salt Lake City.
7. For the first time since 1915, Notre Dame does not play a single team from the Big Ten. The Fighting Irish play six opponents from their pseudo-home conference, the Atlantic Coast.
8. Fire The Coach schedules: Virginia might have kept Mike London for one more season simply to spare the new guy from facing UCLA, Notre Dame and Boise State in the first month. Miami’s aforementioned October could have Al Golden under intolerable heat heading into the home stretch. Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads better have some wins in the bank by mid-October, because the Cyclones close with seven straight against the top seven in the Big 12 last year (TCU, at Baylor, Texas, at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, at Kansas State, at West Virginia).
9. Save The Coach schedules: Rutgers coach Kyle Flood likely saved himself last year with upset wins over Michigan, Maryland and North Carolina, but he could get some added insurance this season with a non-conference slate of Norfolk State, Washington State, Kansas and Army (combined 2014 record: 12-34). Scott Shafer of Syracuse starts work under a new boss with a full September of home games, and if things go really well he could be 6-1 heading into a difficult closing gauntlet. Larry Fedora has only four true road games in year four at North Carolina, and the Tar Heels leave the state only three times.
10. Schools that need to put on their big-boy scheduling pants: Baylor (non-conference lineup of SMU, Lamar, Rice); Oklahoma State (Central Michigan, Central Arkansas, UTSA); Kansas State (South Dakota, UTSA, Louisiana Tech, in a return to Bill Snyder’s weakling schedule roots); Arizona (UTSA, Nevada, Northern Arizona); Penn State (Temple, Buffalo, San Diego State, Army); Mississippi State (Southern Miss, Northwestern State, Troy, Louisiana Tech); Mississippi (UT Martin, Fresno State, New Mexico State, Memphis); North Carolina State (Troy, Eastern Kentucky, Old Dominion, South Alabama).
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QB Anu Solomon and Rich Rodriguez won't get a break this college football season. (AP)
11. Arizona might not have scheduled much in terms of non-conference rigor, but it also did not give itself a break. Literally. The Wildcats play 12 straight weeks without a bye, ending the year early (Nov. 21) against arch-rival Arizona State. Strap up, training staff.12. The Big 12 gifted four teams with back-to-back headaches: league favorites Baylor and TCU in succession. Oklahoma is at Baylor on Nov. 14, hosts TCU on Nov. 21; West Virginia is at Baylor on Oct. 17 and at TCU on Oct. 29; Texas Tech hosts TCU on Sept. 26 and plays Baylor in Arlington on Oct. 3; and Iowa State hosts TCU on Oct. 17 and is at Baylor on Oct. 24. Enjoy!
13. On the flip side, the Big 12 also has bestowed back-to-back games against league lightweights Kansas and Iowa State to five teams. Oklahoma rests up for that Baylor-TCU double with games against the Jayhawks on Oct. 31 and Cyclones on Nov. 7; Texas gets Iowa State on Oct. 31 and Kansas on Nov. 7; Kansas State hosts Iowa State on Nov. 21 and is at Kansas on Nov. 28; West Virginia is at Kansas Nov. 21 and hosts Iowa State on Nov. 28; and Texas Tech has Iowa State at home Oct. 10 and visits Lawrence on Oct. 17.
14. Texas A&M does not leave the state of Texas until Oct. 24, when it plays at Mississippi. Prior to that are four true home games and pseudo-neutral-site games against Arizona State (Houston) and Arkansas (Arlington).
15. Penn State doesn’t leave the state until Oct. 17. The only road game in the first six is the opener at Temple, and there likely will be more Nittany Lions fans than Owls backers in attendance for that one. Don’t be shocked if Penn State is 6-0 going to Ohio State – and then gets absolutely shellacked by the Buckeyes.
16. The downside of the Penn State schedule: it plays the first 10 weekends without a bye, and catches both Maryland and Northwestern coming off open weeks.
17. Temple won’t have a true home-field advantage in a game until Oct. 10, when it hosts Tulane. Of course, that assumes some Owls fans – or fans of any team – show up for that game.
18. Georgia is not breaking the bank on travel expenses. All 12 games are played within the state or in an adjoining state – the longest road trip is 300 miles to Nashville to play Vanderbilt. A potential 13th game in the SEC championship game would also be in the Peach State. A victory there could put the Bulldogs in Florida for an Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. Thus if the season goes ideally for Georgia, its 15th and final game – the national championship game in Arizona – would be the only one that required leaving the Southeast.
19. Mississippi visits Florida for the first time since The Promise. That’s when the Rebels upset the Gators in 2008, which led to this Tim Tebow declaration, which is now memorialized on a plaque outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Why? Because Florida won out in ’08, including the national title. Promise kept.
20. Fresh matchups: Alabama-Wisconsin (first meeting since 1928); LSU-Syracuse (first regular-season meeting); Auburn-Louisville (first meeting since 1974); Texas A&M-Arizona State (first meeting); Michigan-BYU (first regular-season meeting); Nebraska-BYU (first meeting); Virginia Tech-Purdue (first meeting); California-Texas (first regular-season meeting since 1970); Clemson-Notre Dame (first meeting since 1979); Boise State-Virginia (first meeting).
21. That LSU trip to Syracuse is the only time an SEC team will play north of Columbia, Mo. That includes bowl games. Naturally, the one trip true north will be indoors.
22. The last time Notre Dame played at Clemson, Joe Montana had to lead a fourth-quarter rally from 10 points down for a 21-17 victory in November 12, 1977. The Fighting Irish went on to win the national title.
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Will Pat Narduzzi turn middling Pittsburgh into a contender? (Getty)
23. Pat Narduzzi starts his head-coaching career at Pittsburgh the hard way, with five of the first seven on the road and just one home game before Oct. 10. First thing Narduzzi needs to do is open with wins over Youngstown State (home) and Akron (road) – teams predecessor Paul Chryst lost to in his three seasons at Pitt.24. Similarly – but less easily – new Nebraska coach Mike Riley has consecutive October opportunities to prove he’s an upgrade over fired Bo Pelini. The Cornhuskers face Wisconsin on Oct. 10 and Minnesota on Oct. 17 – teams Pelini lost to ignominiously in his last two meetings with each. Nebraska gave up 129 points in its last two losses to the Badgers, and lost as double-digit favorites in its last two meetings with the Gophers.
25. Toughest two-week travel stretch: Hawaii goes to Wisconsin on Sept. 26, then to Boise State on Oct. 3. That’s about 21 hours of flying time round-trip to Madison and another 16 hours round-trip to Boise, if the Warriors return to Honolulu between games.
26. Toughest two-week travel stretch, non-Hawaii Division: East Carolina is at SMU on Oct. 3, then at BYU on Oct. 10. That’s about 7,000 miles round-trip for both games combined.
27. Sonny Dykes isn’t the happiest camper at California, and the stretch from Sept. 19-Oct. 10 probably won’t improve that. In that time the Golden Bears are at Texas, at Washington, home against Washington State (which is coming off a bye) and at Utah (which is coming off a bye).
28. Should Stanford be nervous as a likely heavy road favorite at Northwestern to open the season? Maybe. The Wildcats’ last four wins of 2014 were all as an underdog, and the Cardinal lost four times last year as a favorite. Oh, and the game kicks off at 9 a.m. PT.
29. Cross-divisional lottery winners: Texas A&M (draws Vanderbilt and South Carolina from SEC East); Iowa (Maryland and Indiana from Big Ten East); Arizona (Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State, Washington from Pac-12 North); Duke (Boston College and Wake Forest from ACC Atlantic); East Carolina (SMU, Tulsa and Navy from American Athletic Conference West); Boise State (Hawaii, UNLV and San Diego State from the Mountain West's West division); Akron (Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan from Mid-American West); Old Dominion (UTSA, UTEP and Southern Miss from Conference USA West).
30. Cross-divisional lottery losers: Georgia (draws Alabama and Auburn from SEC West); Minnesota (Ohio State and Michigan from Big Ten East); California (Utah, UCLA, USC and Arizona State from Pac-12 South); Georgia Tech and Miami (both play Florida State and Clemson from ACC Coastal); Tulsa (East Carolina, Central Florida and Cincinnati from AAC East); Hawaii (at Boise State, at New Mexico and Air Force from Mountain West Mountain); Ohio and Miami Ohio (Northern Illinois and Western Michigan from Mid-American West); North Texas (Western Kentucky, Marshall and Middle Tennessee from Conference USA East).
31. Keeping it real: North Carolina is the only FBS team that will play every game on God’s own grass.
32. Nothing but artificial ingredients: Oregon State, Kansas State, Hawaii, UNLV, Toledo, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Kent State, Miami Ohio, Old Dominion, Charlotte, UTEP, Southern Miss, UTSA and Louisiana-Lafayette will play all their games on fake grass.
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Will Bobby Petrino keep his season-opening winning streak alive? (AP)
33. Bobby Petrino is undefeated (10-0) in season openers as a head coach. That perfect record will get a serious challenge Sept. 5 when Louisville faces Auburn in the Georgia Dome.34. Rice leaves the state of Texas once all season: Oct. 10, at Florida Atlantic. It plays five road games in the state: at Texas, North Texas, Baylor, UTEP and UTSA.
35. “MACtion,” as the Mid-American Conference’s midweek glut of games is affectionately known, is back again in 2015. Seven MAC teams will play the entire month of November on week nights.
36. Power Five teams willing to grant a true road game to opponents outside their gated communities: Oklahoma State at Central Michigan, Sept. 3; Duke at Tulane, Sept. 3; Washington at Boise State, Sept. 4; Purdue at Marshall, Sept. 6; Missouri at Arkansas State, Sept. 12; Minnesota at Colorado State, Sept. 12; UCLA at UNLV, Sept. 12; Arizona at Nevada, Sept. 12; Kansas State at UTSA, Sept. 12; Pitt at Akron, Sept. 12; Utah at Fresno State, Sept. 19; Iowa State at Toledo, Sept. 19; North Carolina State at Old Dominion, Sept. 19; Wake Forest at Army, Sept. 19; Virginia Tech at East Carolina, Sept. 26; Miami at Cincinnati, Oct. 1. (Miami at FAU, Penn State at Temple, Mississippi State at Southern Miss and others don’t count. They will be de facto home games.)
37. Wake Forest, an original ACC member dating back to 1953, will play games in Syracuse, N.Y.; West Point, N.Y.; Chestnut Hill, Mass.; and South Bend, Ind. Three of them are scheduled by the ACC.
38. Boise State plays on Friday night more than some high school teams. The Broncos have six Friday night games: Washington, Idaho State, Virginia, Utah State, Air Force and San Jose State.
39. For $150 per season ticket ($25 per game), you can get end-zone seating at Connecticut’s Rentschler Field to see a home schedule of Villanova, Army, Navy, South Florida, East Carolina and Houston. Surprisingly, tickets are still available. (Yes, the biggest loser in realignment is UConn.)
40. Tennessee plays Kentucky on Halloween. It’s the first time the (one-sided) rivals have met outside the month of November since 1944, when they played twice and the first meeting was in September. The only other times the Volunteers and Wildcats have played prior to November were in 1893, 1908 and 1909.
40 schedule observations for this college football season
By Pat Forde July 6, 2015 7:24 PM Yahoo Sports It’s the middle of summer, and man cannot live by “Shark Week” alone. So it’s time for a college football intervention. Forty observations on the 2015 schedule that you can use to amaze and entertain your friends:
1. Toughest September: BYU. The Cougars open at Nebraska, home against Boise State, at UCLA, at Michigan. Just for kicks, BYU follows that Michigan game with a short-turnaround Friday contest against Connecticut on Oct. 2. Being an independent is fun, isn’t it, Bronco Mendenhall?
2. Toughest October: Miami. The Hurricanes are at Cincinnati on a Thursday, then at Florida State, home against Virginia Tech and Clemson, and at Duke on Halloween. Combined 2014 record of those opponents: 49-18.
3. Toughest November: Baylor. The Bears are at Kansas State on a Thursday night, home against Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State and at TCU on the day after Thanksgiving with the Big 12 (undisputed!) title perhaps on the line in that one.
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4. Toughest schedule, period: Alabama has at least two slobberknockers a month. Every month. In September it has Wisconsin and Mississippi. In October it visits Georgia and Texas A&M – the latter coming off a bye while the Crimson Tide is coming off a rumble with Arkansas. In November it plays LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn – the final two on the road. If anyone complains about the Tide scheduling Middle Tennessee, Louisiana-Monroe and Charleston Southern, tell them to look at the schedule in its entirety and hush.
5. Kudos to bluebloods daring to leave home early. Ohio State’s Labor Day game at Virginia Tech is the Buckeyes’ first on-campus road opener since 1998, when they played at West Virginia. Texas’ Sept. 5 game at Notre Dame is the Longhorns’ first true road opener since 1995, when they played at Hawaii. Michigan’s Sept. 3 opener at Utah is the Wolverines’ first true road opener since 1998, at Notre Dame.
6. Jim Harbaugh takes an eight-game, five-year-old winning streak as a college coach into Salt Lake City.
7. For the first time since 1915, Notre Dame does not play a single team from the Big Ten. The Fighting Irish play six opponents from their pseudo-home conference, the Atlantic Coast.
8. Fire The Coach schedules: Virginia might have kept Mike London for one more season simply to spare the new guy from facing UCLA, Notre Dame and Boise State in the first month. Miami’s aforementioned October could have Al Golden under intolerable heat heading into the home stretch. Iowa State’s Paul Rhoads better have some wins in the bank by mid-October, because the Cyclones close with seven straight against the top seven in the Big 12 last year (TCU, at Baylor, Texas, at Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, at Kansas State, at West Virginia).
9. Save The Coach schedules: Rutgers coach Kyle Flood likely saved himself last year with upset wins over Michigan, Maryland and North Carolina, but he could get some added insurance this season with a non-conference slate of Norfolk State, Washington State, Kansas and Army (combined 2014 record: 12-34). Scott Shafer of Syracuse starts work under a new boss with a full September of home games, and if things go really well he could be 6-1 heading into a difficult closing gauntlet. Larry Fedora has only four true road games in year four at North Carolina, and the Tar Heels leave the state only three times.
10. Schools that need to put on their big-boy scheduling pants: Baylor (non-conference lineup of SMU, Lamar, Rice); Oklahoma State (Central Michigan, Central Arkansas, UTSA); Kansas State (South Dakota, UTSA, Louisiana Tech, in a return to Bill Snyder’s weakling schedule roots); Arizona (UTSA, Nevada, Northern Arizona); Penn State (Temple, Buffalo, San Diego State, Army); Mississippi State (Southern Miss, Northwestern State, Troy, Louisiana Tech); Mississippi (UT Martin, Fresno State, New Mexico State, Memphis); North Carolina State (Troy, Eastern Kentucky, Old Dominion, South Alabama).
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11. Arizona might not have scheduled much in terms of non-conference rigor, but it also did not give itself a break. Literally. The Wildcats play 12 straight weeks without a bye, ending the year early (Nov. 21) against arch-rival Arizona State. Strap up, training staff.12. The Big 12 gifted four teams with back-to-back headaches: league favorites Baylor and TCU in succession. Oklahoma is at Baylor on Nov. 14, hosts TCU on Nov. 21; West Virginia is at Baylor on Oct. 17 and at TCU on Oct. 29; Texas Tech hosts TCU on Sept. 26 and plays Baylor in Arlington on Oct. 3; and Iowa State hosts TCU on Oct. 17 and is at Baylor on Oct. 24. Enjoy!
13. On the flip side, the Big 12 also has bestowed back-to-back games against league lightweights Kansas and Iowa State to five teams. Oklahoma rests up for that Baylor-TCU double with games against the Jayhawks on Oct. 31 and Cyclones on Nov. 7; Texas gets Iowa State on Oct. 31 and Kansas on Nov. 7; Kansas State hosts Iowa State on Nov. 21 and is at Kansas on Nov. 28; West Virginia is at Kansas Nov. 21 and hosts Iowa State on Nov. 28; and Texas Tech has Iowa State at home Oct. 10 and visits Lawrence on Oct. 17.
14. Texas A&M does not leave the state of Texas until Oct. 24, when it plays at Mississippi. Prior to that are four true home games and pseudo-neutral-site games against Arizona State (Houston) and Arkansas (Arlington).
15. Penn State doesn’t leave the state until Oct. 17. The only road game in the first six is the opener at Temple, and there likely will be more Nittany Lions fans than Owls backers in attendance for that one. Don’t be shocked if Penn State is 6-0 going to Ohio State – and then gets absolutely shellacked by the Buckeyes.
16. The downside of the Penn State schedule: it plays the first 10 weekends without a bye, and catches both Maryland and Northwestern coming off open weeks.
17. Temple won’t have a true home-field advantage in a game until Oct. 10, when it hosts Tulane. Of course, that assumes some Owls fans – or fans of any team – show up for that game.
18. Georgia is not breaking the bank on travel expenses. All 12 games are played within the state or in an adjoining state – the longest road trip is 300 miles to Nashville to play Vanderbilt. A potential 13th game in the SEC championship game would also be in the Peach State. A victory there could put the Bulldogs in Florida for an Orange Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal. Thus if the season goes ideally for Georgia, its 15th and final game – the national championship game in Arizona – would be the only one that required leaving the Southeast.
19. Mississippi visits Florida for the first time since The Promise. That’s when the Rebels upset the Gators in 2008, which led to this Tim Tebow declaration, which is now memorialized on a plaque outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Why? Because Florida won out in ’08, including the national title. Promise kept.
20. Fresh matchups: Alabama-Wisconsin (first meeting since 1928); LSU-Syracuse (first regular-season meeting); Auburn-Louisville (first meeting since 1974); Texas A&M-Arizona State (first meeting); Michigan-BYU (first regular-season meeting); Nebraska-BYU (first meeting); Virginia Tech-Purdue (first meeting); California-Texas (first regular-season meeting since 1970); Clemson-Notre Dame (first meeting since 1979); Boise State-Virginia (first meeting).
21. That LSU trip to Syracuse is the only time an SEC team will play north of Columbia, Mo. That includes bowl games. Naturally, the one trip true north will be indoors.
22. The last time Notre Dame played at Clemson, Joe Montana had to lead a fourth-quarter rally from 10 points down for a 21-17 victory in November 12, 1977. The Fighting Irish went on to win the national title.
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23. Pat Narduzzi starts his head-coaching career at Pittsburgh the hard way, with five of the first seven on the road and just one home game before Oct. 10. First thing Narduzzi needs to do is open with wins over Youngstown State (home) and Akron (road) – teams predecessor Paul Chryst lost to in his three seasons at Pitt.24. Similarly – but less easily – new Nebraska coach Mike Riley has consecutive October opportunities to prove he’s an upgrade over fired Bo Pelini. The Cornhuskers face Wisconsin on Oct. 10 and Minnesota on Oct. 17 – teams Pelini lost to ignominiously in his last two meetings with each. Nebraska gave up 129 points in its last two losses to the Badgers, and lost as double-digit favorites in its last two meetings with the Gophers.
25. Toughest two-week travel stretch: Hawaii goes to Wisconsin on Sept. 26, then to Boise State on Oct. 3. That’s about 21 hours of flying time round-trip to Madison and another 16 hours round-trip to Boise, if the Warriors return to Honolulu between games.
26. Toughest two-week travel stretch, non-Hawaii Division: East Carolina is at SMU on Oct. 3, then at BYU on Oct. 10. That’s about 7,000 miles round-trip for both games combined.
27. Sonny Dykes isn’t the happiest camper at California, and the stretch from Sept. 19-Oct. 10 probably won’t improve that. In that time the Golden Bears are at Texas, at Washington, home against Washington State (which is coming off a bye) and at Utah (which is coming off a bye).
28. Should Stanford be nervous as a likely heavy road favorite at Northwestern to open the season? Maybe. The Wildcats’ last four wins of 2014 were all as an underdog, and the Cardinal lost four times last year as a favorite. Oh, and the game kicks off at 9 a.m. PT.
29. Cross-divisional lottery winners: Texas A&M (draws Vanderbilt and South Carolina from SEC East); Iowa (Maryland and Indiana from Big Ten East); Arizona (Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State, Washington from Pac-12 North); Duke (Boston College and Wake Forest from ACC Atlantic); East Carolina (SMU, Tulsa and Navy from American Athletic Conference West); Boise State (Hawaii, UNLV and San Diego State from the Mountain West's West division); Akron (Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan from Mid-American West); Old Dominion (UTSA, UTEP and Southern Miss from Conference USA West).
30. Cross-divisional lottery losers: Georgia (draws Alabama and Auburn from SEC West); Minnesota (Ohio State and Michigan from Big Ten East); California (Utah, UCLA, USC and Arizona State from Pac-12 South); Georgia Tech and Miami (both play Florida State and Clemson from ACC Coastal); Tulsa (East Carolina, Central Florida and Cincinnati from AAC East); Hawaii (at Boise State, at New Mexico and Air Force from Mountain West Mountain); Ohio and Miami Ohio (Northern Illinois and Western Michigan from Mid-American West); North Texas (Western Kentucky, Marshall and Middle Tennessee from Conference USA East).
31. Keeping it real: North Carolina is the only FBS team that will play every game on God’s own grass.
32. Nothing but artificial ingredients: Oregon State, Kansas State, Hawaii, UNLV, Toledo, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Kent State, Miami Ohio, Old Dominion, Charlotte, UTEP, Southern Miss, UTSA and Louisiana-Lafayette will play all their games on fake grass.
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33. Bobby Petrino is undefeated (10-0) in season openers as a head coach. That perfect record will get a serious challenge Sept. 5 when Louisville faces Auburn in the Georgia Dome.34. Rice leaves the state of Texas once all season: Oct. 10, at Florida Atlantic. It plays five road games in the state: at Texas, North Texas, Baylor, UTEP and UTSA.
35. “MACtion,” as the Mid-American Conference’s midweek glut of games is affectionately known, is back again in 2015. Seven MAC teams will play the entire month of November on week nights.
36. Power Five teams willing to grant a true road game to opponents outside their gated communities: Oklahoma State at Central Michigan, Sept. 3; Duke at Tulane, Sept. 3; Washington at Boise State, Sept. 4; Purdue at Marshall, Sept. 6; Missouri at Arkansas State, Sept. 12; Minnesota at Colorado State, Sept. 12; UCLA at UNLV, Sept. 12; Arizona at Nevada, Sept. 12; Kansas State at UTSA, Sept. 12; Pitt at Akron, Sept. 12; Utah at Fresno State, Sept. 19; Iowa State at Toledo, Sept. 19; North Carolina State at Old Dominion, Sept. 19; Wake Forest at Army, Sept. 19; Virginia Tech at East Carolina, Sept. 26; Miami at Cincinnati, Oct. 1. (Miami at FAU, Penn State at Temple, Mississippi State at Southern Miss and others don’t count. They will be de facto home games.)
37. Wake Forest, an original ACC member dating back to 1953, will play games in Syracuse, N.Y.; West Point, N.Y.; Chestnut Hill, Mass.; and South Bend, Ind. Three of them are scheduled by the ACC.
38. Boise State plays on Friday night more than some high school teams. The Broncos have six Friday night games: Washington, Idaho State, Virginia, Utah State, Air Force and San Jose State.
39. For $150 per season ticket ($25 per game), you can get end-zone seating at Connecticut’s Rentschler Field to see a home schedule of Villanova, Army, Navy, South Florida, East Carolina and Houston. Surprisingly, tickets are still available. (Yes, the biggest loser in realignment is UConn.)
40. Tennessee plays Kentucky on Halloween. It’s the first time the (one-sided) rivals have met outside the month of November since 1944, when they played twice and the first meeting was in September. The only other times the Volunteers and Wildcats have played prior to November were in 1893, 1908 and 1909.
