Underrated Games, Best G-5 Games, Best G-5 vs. P-4 Games and Much, Much, More!

That sounds a bit like a Don West intro. And, not gonna lie, if I had the money back in the day I would have been all over those baseball card deals. I mean those cards are worth almost nothing now but at that time, in the Junk Wax era as it is known as, I loved collecting cards. And I wasn’t one of those people who thought I could collect a ton and then sell it and eventually retire on that one sale like some idiots out there. I just liked collecting the cards. Problem was, being a completionist, I always wanted to finish sets. That was the most important thing. Not getting the best or most popular cards. Completing the set. That was the goal. I’m sure that ties in to my mental illnesses somewhere but I’m really not wanting to look that deep into it. Anyway….

The most important games post is complete. Now it’s time for the rest of the lists. I have to watch myself here. If I keep adding more games to these lists, soon enough I will be listing like 75% of the games. At that point, I’m basically doing a preview of every game which is honestly ridiculous. So I will try to keep this relatively small while still feeling like I am giving everyone a good post chock full of informationy goodness.

Sneaky-Good/Underrated Games

Remember when I used to list one of these games for every week of the season? Ah, good times. These are the games that aren’t on the most important list but could end up being very good and are, of course, worth watching. Then again, I would tell you that an early season game between a Conference USA team and a low-level FCS team is also worth watching so what do I know.

1. Missouri at Texas A&M (Week 6, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – This is SEVERELY underrated as I have it going to ESPNU. Helps that the SEC has a stacked schedule that week but still. It might end up getting moved but Mizzou is the kind of program that will be somewhat buried early on in the season in the broadcast schedule and will finally get their due in the second-last week of the season when it turns out they are actually a Top 10 team (as we saw last year with the Tigers).
2. Oklahoma State at Kansas State (Week 5, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Both of these teams will be in the Big XII mix but does that say more about how good these two programs are how much of a minefield at the top the conference is? I have listed five programs who could win the conference title and, to be honest, I could see ten or more bowl teams. A lot of teams grouped around the .500 mark for sure.
3. Iowa State at Utah (Week 13, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – Did you hear the rumours of Utah now wanting to head to the ACC? I think some people just like to plant rumours to see if people take the bait. Not saying that the Utes couldn’t move again in the next few years but the Big XII seems like the proper spot for them. Also, is this a matchup of two of the best head coaches in recent college football history? You could make the argument.
4. Louisville at Clemson (Week 10, 7:30, ABC/TSN+) – A big-time ACC game appearing on ABC in primetime and it’s fourth on the Underrated Games list. This is where we are now in college football. It’s essentially three tiers. No more Power Five and Group of Five. It’s now the Power Two, Middle Two and Group of Five. Anyway, by this point, this could end up essentially being an elimination game for the ACC Championship. And let’s be honest: will the ACC get more than two teams in the playoff? Probably not.
5. Oklahoma at LSU (Week 14, 7:00, TSN2) – The Sooners have a really rough debut season in the SEC as they got a tougher schedule than Texas. Could the Sooners be battling for bowl eligibility here? I doubt it but they have a minefield to go through before this game. As of right now I have this game on on in primetime but I could see it being moved to Black Friday.
6. Wisconsin at USC (Week 5, 3:30, BTN) – Yeah, BTN. Big Ten Network. That network is going to get a bunch of good games this season just due to the sheer size of the conference alone. They have to show something and it won’t always be Indiana-Rutgers. I don’t see either of these teams as competing for the conference championship but it also wouldn’t surprise me if either of these teams ends up in 9-win territory.
7. Kansas State at Iowa State (Week 14, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – FARMAGEDDON! Always an underappreciated affair but this could end up being a very important game inside the Big XII. KSU might need this game to head to JerryWorld for a Big XII title and a potential first-round bye in the College Football Playoff. ISU…well, it’s ISU so who knows where they will be. They could be fighting for bowl eligibility at this point or they could also be looking at a potential conference championship game berth.
8. Miami at Louisville (Week 8, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – I’m not saying the ACC is going to end soon but wouldn’t it be something if many of the teams left this conference after this season and the final conference champion was Miami, of all teams? A program that everyone thought would win at least a few conference titles in their first couple decades in the ACC have been shut out. I still don’t think they will win it this year but if Mario Cristobal can figure out how to not snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, they may be a dangerous team this year.
9. Tennessee at Oklahoma (Week 4, 7:30, ABC/TSN+) – It feels like there are some good teams in these underrated games list. Tells you the quality of the games on the Most Important Games list. This is probably the 20th best SEC game of the year. Yeah, the SEC is going to be a gauntlet this season. Hey, at least this isn’t relegated to the SEC Network (not like it matters much to us Canadians).
10. Wisconsin at Iowa (Week 10, 3:30, CBS) – What’s the over/under going to be for this game? I put it at about 30. If you love defense and Big Ten West football, this is the game for you!
11. USC at Washington (Week 10, 3:30, FOX) – This is underrated? If you had said this even last year, I am sure you would have been laughed at. Look, the Huskies got to the national championship last year and no one is talking about them going into 2024. And the Trojans are still the Trojans. There were very few seasons where one of these two teams, if not both, were not near the top of the Pac-12/10/8 standings. Again, it gets a bit buried because it’s now a Big Ten game but I could see this being a damn good one.
12. SMU at Louisville (Week 6, 3:30, ABC/TSN+) – Speaking of teams moving conferences, here is arguably the oddest move of the offseason. SMU will make no money on media rights until 2033. That is crazy. They are fully betting on themselves here. Saying that, we need to understand what kind of program they were before their death penalty back in the 80s. Constantly a ranked team and a program that looked very close to competing for national championships. So who knows…maybe in a couple of years this will be the team that runs the ACC.

Best Group of Five Games

To be a true college football fan is to know something about the Group of Five. To watch their games when you can because you know there are good teams down there and some seriously exciting (and potentially insane) games. For every huge SEC game there are a bunch of Fun Belt and MACtion games. Tuesday night Conference USA action. Mountain West games that are tough to find as Canadians. And the top Group of Five conference, the American, which gets raided on a damn-near yearly basis by the top conferences. Also a reminder: this is for G-5 teams only. No Power Five Four Two whatever teams eligible. Finally, I am not including Washington State or Oregon State here. They are in a bit of a no-man’s land but I wouldn’t put them as Group of Five teams…yet.

1. Liberty at Appalachian State (Week 5, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – Already included in the Most Important Games section. Arguably the top G-5 game of the year.
2. Troy at Memphis (Week 2, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Another game with two teams that could very well be in contention for what will probably end up being the singular G-5 spot in the College Football Playoff. The Trojans lost their head coach and I could see the Tigers losing Ryan Silverfield if Memphis gets to the CFP.
3. Appalachian State at Louisiana (Week 7, Tuesday, TSN1/TSN3) – You read that right. Tuesday. The Sun Belt will have a couple of games on Tuesday nights (to go along with Conference USA’s crazy October weeknight schedule) and I have a feeling this will be one of them. And it’s the Sun Belt Game of the Year (probably). These are the two division favourites in the only conference left in the FBS that has divisions (hopefully they end that next season).
4. Memphis at UTSA (Week 10, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack) – The Roadrunners of Texas-San Antonio (said in extreme Greg Gumbel voice) has to be considered a fantastic success. The program, which had its first season only 13 years ago, are now one of the best teams in the Group of Five and they draw a lot of people to a stadium that was woefully underused for years, the Alamodome. This will be a rough one for Memphis and a Roadrunners victory could signal UTSA’s ascent to the top, perhaps for the foreseeable future.
5. WKU at Liberty (Week 13, 1:00, ESPN+, time confirmed) – Yep. ESPN+. Look, I have said it many times before but I will say it again (or more like type it): the Conference USA has a horrifically bad television contract and it continues to this day. It’s the worst conference in FBS and even having two teams like this doesn’t help their cause. Apologies to New Mexico State but this is probably a preview of the C-USA Championship.
6. James Madison at Appalachian State (Week 13, 3:00, ESPN+) – Ya know, for not being a great week of games, there sure are a lot of Group of Five games on ESPN+. Third time on this list and the first divisional game that could derail what could be a special season in Boone. Now if somehow Boone gets College Gameday for this one I hope ESPN does the right thing and at least puts it on ESPNU.
7. Troy at Louisiana (Week 13, 2:00, ESPN+) – What in the fuck? This is what happens when ESPN decides Yale-Harvard has to air on ESPNU. I hope they put that game in a four-hour window to make time for the eventual yearly protest in that game. This is the West Division version of the JMU-App State game above. Winner of these two games probably sets up the Sun Belt Championship, (hopefully) sponsored by Little Debbie or Bojangles or some other Southern company.
8. Boise State at UNLV (Week 9, Friday, 10:30, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – Nice to see the Rebels on this list. What a great season they had last year and I have a feeling that will continue this year. The Mountain West might struggle to have a team in the playoff this year, just from the fact that there are quite a few candidates to win the conference that I just assume they will all beat up on each other and it becomes a war of attrition.
9. Jacksonville State at Liberty (Week 10, Wednesday, 7:00, CBS Sports Network, confirmed) – RichRod returns for another year in Alabama for the Gamecocks. And as you can see, yes, that is not a typo. Wednesday night. Aw yeah, Weekday Conference USA! The one redeeming quality of C-USA’s shit-tacular broadcast contract is that in October they get a bunch of Tuesday and Wednesday night games. We thought MACtion and the Fun Belt had to bend to get national coverage. This is ridiculous (but great for lunatics like me who would watch college football every day from late August until the national championship if it was scheduled that way).
10. Memphis at USF (Week 7, Friday, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – I do wonder if the Bulls can recreate the magic they showed in their near-upset of Alabama at the beginning of last season. The Bulls have a rough early-season schedule but a win here could start a seven-game winning streak to end the season. That could also lead to a berth in the American Championship if things fall their way.
11. Tulane at Louisiana (Week 4, 5:00, ESPN+) – There is a possibility this game sneaks on to ESPNU or even ESPN2 if Tulane can somehow beat either Oklahoma or Kansas State (it wouldn’t totally surprise me if either happened). Otherwise they will probably be relegated to ESPN+ and perhaps a weird start time (at least for Eastern Time Zone people like myself). Which reminds me of a poll I saw recently: what is the best time zone for watching sports? Not going to lie, I feel a bit envious of Central Time Zone since they have the best balance. Nothing super early but you can finish the Hawaii Test before 2 in the morning most times.
12. Fresno State at UNLV (Week 5, 3:30, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Even with how good UNLV did last year, no one would have “UNLV being in the two most important Mountain West games of the 2024 season” on their bingo card. I like the fact that the Mountain West gets CBS and FOX to set out most of their game times before the season begins. I am sure the fans appreciate it as well. Also, this is my yearly rant about Canadians deserving a television package that allows for every game short of the ones on ESPN+ to be available for purchase. Will never happen but that would be the only thing that would take me off of IPTV (and even that might not be enough).

Best Group of Five vs. Power Five Four Games

I could also call this the Potential Upset list although a few of these games have small odds of an upset (I love chaos but even I would struggle to even consider putting money on some of these). Now that we essentially have the Power Two and the Middle Two and not the Power Five anymore, I could see more upsets involving teams from the Big XII and ACC than ever before.

1. Memphis at Florida State (Week 3, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Is this the best upset possibility? Probably not but here are two things: Memphis is considered one of the favourites to get to the College Football Playoff from the Group of Five and who knows how good Florida State will be this year. As good as they were last year before Jordan Travis got injured? Not likely. Still one of the ACC favourites, though. Saying all this, a Tigers victory here will give Memphis a huge boost and make it so social media shits all over the ACC, at least for the following week or so.
2. Boise State at Oregon (Week 2, 10:00, Peacock, confirmed) – First of all, yes it is on Peacock so no Canadian will have (easy) access to the game which is a complete joke. Second, Oregon is supposed to be very good this year so any loss will be scrutinized heavily, especially if it happens here. Boise should also be good, in a G-5 sense, but a win here does what a win would do for Memphis in the previous game on this list: boost them up the rankings and potentially allow them to hold on to a high ranking even with a loss later in the year.
3. Appalachian State at Clemson (Week 2, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – An ACC Network appearance on the list. Is that a shot at Clemson or App State (or both)? App State, like the two other G-5 teams so far on this list, have a good shot at the playoff. I am on the fence about Clemson, though. I’ve talked about this with Dabo’s disdain/fear of the transfer portal. Will that work in his favour or will it kill a bit of his legacy in Death Valley? This could be the season we find that out.
4. Fresno State at Michigan (Week 1, 7:30, NBC, confirmed) – OK this could be the first game where I am pretty sure there won’t be an upset. Michigan won’t be as good as last season but they are still a really good team and one of the Big Ten favourites. Fresno might struggle considering Boise, Air Force and even UNLV could be in their way to even getting to the conference championship. Keeping it close with the Wolverines here could at least give them a good repuation going forward.
5. Miami-OH at Notre Dame (Week 4, 3:30, NBC, confirmed) – Man, NBC (and Peacock) are already taking up a good portion of this list. The Irish have traditionally struggled against at least one Group of Five team every year. Remember Marcus Freeman’s first game at home as Notre Dame head coach? A loss to Marshall. And the year before that they struggled to beat Toledo. So don’t be surprised if this is at least a close one going into the final quarter.
6. Tulane at Oklahoma (Week 3, 3:30, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Tulane is a big question mark in the G-5 grand scheme of things. A new head coach, new quarterback, new starters in key positions. This isn’t your slightly older brother’s Green Wave. Saying that, the Sooners are taking a massive step up in competition. They can’t have missteps in non-conference games or otherwise we could see…GASP…the Sooners struggling to be bowl-eligible.
7. UTSA at Texas (Week 3, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Too bad this game wasn’t in San Antonio. I would have loved to have seen what the crowd split would have been. And how loud it could have got.
8. Kansas State at Tulane (Week 2, Noon, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Not often you see a team of Kansas State’s caliber going on the road to face a Group of Five team. Tulane could be considered slightly different considering their last two years of success but still, it doesn’t happen often. I love these kinds of games and, no offense to the Wildcats, I would love to see a Green Wave victory here because I almost always love G-5 wins over P-5 teams.
9. Troy at Iowa (Week 3, 4:00, FOX Sports One, confirmed) – Sorry, can’t help you here. FS1 gets some good Big Ten games and this may end up being one of them. Also, other than teams using acronyms for names, this is the least amount of letters for any matchup all season.
10. Fresno State at UCLA (Week 14, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – Late season G-5/P-5 warfare? Interesting. Another anomaly of the schedule where conference play usually reigns supreme. Hey, remember when Jake Haener got the shit beat out of him yet still led the Bulldogs to a 40-37 victory over UCLA? That was only three years ago if you can believe it. Don’t be surprised if the other FSU gives the Bruins headaches once again.
11. Jacksonville State at Louisville (Week 2, 3:30, ESPN+, confirmed) – It took a while but there is finally an ESPN+ game on this list. The RichRod Fighting Cocks might give the Cardinals fits in this one. JSU loves to run the ball and the Cards only let up over 150 yards rushing once last season. Something’s gotta give.
12. Miami at USF (Week 4, 3:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – Should be one of the largest crowds in USF history. Will it approach the 66,000 that saw the Canes destroy the Bulls back in 2009? Perhaps. USF should still be a decent team and Miami is a huge wild card coming into the season. At least we know Mario Cristobal has probably learned his lesson about kneeling when the game is in hand. At least I hope he has.

Worst Power Five Games

Realistically, this could be called the Sickos Section. Games that no casual fan would even consider watching. Games you might have to look hard to find. Games that even conference networks would try to avoid if they can (except for the Big XII which has no choice in that matter). And as I said last year, I will watch portions of all these games. Guaran-fucking-teed. Let’s go!

1. Purdue at Indiana (Week 14, Noon, Big Ten Network) – The Old Oaken Bucket is the number one game on this list. It could be a close game but I can’t see either team being any good. And considering it’s on the final week of the regular season, it will be buried beneath most every other game, including most of the G-5 games.
2. Wake Forest at Stanford (Week 9, 8:00, TSN+/specialty pack) – This is the kind of game I was talking about above. Even the ACC Network is loathe to take this one. The announcers might beg to stay at ACC headquarters to call the game remotely rather than head to The Farm for this one. Expect a lot of games like these with the Cardinal and Cal joining from the complete opposite side of the continent.
3. Indiana at Michigan State (Week 10, 7:00, FOX Sports One) – It’s one of those weeks where I see only two BTN games. Plus, I am sure BTN doesn’t want Indiana every fucking Saturday. So FOX gets saddled with this one. Indiana might very well be the worst Power Five team this season although they will surely get competition from the usual suspects like Vanderbilt and Virginia.
4. Boston College at Virginia (Week 6, 2:00, CW) – Speaking of the Hoos, here they are on a game tailor-made for the CW. BC is another team that has struggled to be any better than medicore over the past few years.
5. Purdue at Michigan State (Week 13, Friday, 8:00, FOX, confirmed) – OK so this honestly not a seriously bad game but for FOX to select this game defies reason. Unless they had to pick a variety of teams because it’s the first season of these Friday night games. That’s the only thing I can think of here.
6. Mississippi State at Arizona State (Week 2, 10:30, TSN2, time confirmed) – Is this the first late-night game on any of these lists? I love late-night games. Usually that’s when the insanity happens. And this feels like a game that is destined to be ridiculous.
7. Stanford at Syracuse (Week 4, Friday, 7:30, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – This looks odd to be a conference game but I better get used to it (before the next set of wacky realignments). This is when the ACC Friday night games really get going and you end up seeing some odd matchups that really don’t garner an ESPN timeslot but they get it anyway. Besides, I could see Cuse being not bad but Stanford…no. Not a chance.
8. Virginia at Wake Forest (Week 2, 7:00, TSN+/specialty pack, time confirmed) – Remember when the Deacs would qualify for this section often? They aren’t all the way back to that but I don’t think they will be as good as they had been under Dave Clawson.
9. Michigan State at Boston College (Week 4, 7:30, TSN+/specialty pack) – I still look back at when I picked Sparty to be in the College Football Playoff and they then proceeded to go 3-9. Assholes.
10. Arizona State at Cincinnati (Week 8, 4:00, FOX) – The first appearance of the Bearcats on any type of Power Five list on this blog. Uh…congrats? Cincy has found life in the Big XII not exactly easy and I could see the Sun Devils having the same kind of experience, at least this year.
11. Baylor at Houston (Week 13, 3:30, FOX Sports One) – The mid-card of the Big XII has ballooned to a ridiculous size. It feels like there could be upwards of ten teams sitting within one game of .500 in 2024. So yes, neither of these teams will be a Bottom 10 Power Five team this year. But put them together and you would have to a true Sicko to watch more than a few minutes of this.
12. Virginia at Pittsburgh (Week 11, 7:00, CW) – Of all the teams using off-campus stadiums, Pitt has to be the one that most needs an on-campus stadium. Acrisure Stadium (Heinz Field) is WAY too fucking big for them other than when Penn State or West Virginia comes to town. They need a nice 30K-40K capacity stadium that they can fill on a weekly basis where they will have a true home-field advantage.

Possible FCS-over-FBS upsets

A new section! Pretty self-explanatory since it happens every year. Some years we get one or two FCS teams beating FBS teams. In other years it hits double digits. I am going to list six potential upsets and I mean true upsets. I mean is a win over Akron an upset? Sorry to any Zips fans out there but it is probably not. This list contains games that should at least shock some out there if the FCS team prevails.

1. South Dakota State at Oklahoma State (Week 1, 7:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – The Jackrabbits have overtaken North Dakota State as the new big dog in the FCS yard. And they are seriously good. If they were put in, let’s say, Conference USA, they would be, at their worst, a .500 team but I think they would have a chance to take the conference title. Now this would be a massive upset but it would make sense that the defending champ could start the season off with a bang (and deal the Big XII a huge blow in the process).
2. Villanova at Maryland (Week 4, 6:30, FOX Sports One) – Oh yeah, just realize that most of these games cannot be seen up here. You think they are putting an FCS team on like ESPN2 in the middle of a college football Saturday? Not bloody likely. The Terps have been a bit of a weird team since joining the Big Ten. Great recruiting, mostly above .500 and always give one really good team a scare. Yet they would be considered now the 8th or 9th best Big Ten team at best? Villanova, not just a basketball school, has had a great run of FCS football success and feel like the kind of team that could beat a Power Four team.
3. North Dakota State at Colorado (Week 1, Thursday, 8:00, TSN4/TSN5, time confirmed) – OK I kind of lied although this seems like a special case where a game like this would go to ESPN. Thursday night. Opening weekend. Another super-hyped Buffaloes team against what is still a very dangerous NDSU squad. This game is ripe for an upset and I could see a lot of Vegas money pushed toward the Bison.
4. Southern Illinois at BYU (Week 1, 8:00, ESPN+, confirmed) – One of the newer Power Four teams is still trying to figure out its place at the top of the college football chain (for now). A team that is always at least fairly good and one with quite a home-field advantage whether you want to admit it or not. That means a Saluki win here would be bigger than normal, even for a team that took Idaho to overtime in the second round of the FCS Playoffs.
5. Sacramento State at Fresno State (Week 2, 10:30, Mountain West Network) – OK this is the first time the Mountain West Network has appeared in, well, anything on this blog. MWN is shown on a network called Stadium in the U.S. and also can be streamed online. So I can be sure that damn near no one here has seen games on this. Now that that is out of the way, here’s a fun fact: the Hornets play at the same field as the Sacramento Gold Miners, a team that was part of the CFL’s USA experiment back in the 90s.
6. Youngstown State at Pittsburgh (Week 4, 3:30, ESPN+, confirmed) – All six of the FCS teams on this list made to at least the second round of the FCS Playoffs. The problem with YSU (and Southern Illinois from higher up the list) is that they have the audacity to be in the same conference as North Dakota State and South Dakota State. How dare they. Probably why it has been a long time since the Penguins have gone deep in the playoffs (they lost to James Madison in the 2016 FCS Championship).

Done, done, DONE! All the lists of games are complete. That was a bit exhausting but it also felt good. It means college football season is coming closer. I’m trying to figure out which preview magazine I will get next. Probably Athlon since I will be able to find it in a bookstore in the next week or so. As for Phil Steele, I am thinking of forgoing it. There are a couple of other magazines that I might look into that include Pick Six Previews that has been gaining a lot of fanfare. So a lot of decisions I have to make over the next few weeks. Not important decisions, let’s be honest. But decisions nonetheless.

Next will come the network-specific posts. Last year I put all the schedules in one mega-post. I might do that again but that, too, is up in the air. I think we are at the point where as much broadcast information, sans TSN, has been announced for the first few weeks of the season and various games scattered throughout the rest of the schedule. We are not going to see a ton more new information on this so it feels safe to piece this post together. 71 days away until the start of the season. Get all your weekend work around the home done soon since, if you’re like me, that shit won’t get done in the Fall. Have a great weekend, everyone!