Your guide to getting the most fun out of college football season

We've almost made it. After a particularly frustrating offseason loaded with Congressional minutiae, terrible playoff ideas and a high-profile gambling scandal, college football's 158th season will kick off in less than two weeks. The games are why we watch. This sport and its decision-makers sometimes seem to mess up everything they touch, but no matter how hard we've tried, we haven't screwed up Saturdays yet. They're still almost perfect. And with the proper battle plan, we can make them even better. College football's superpower is that there is always something wild, chaotic or silly (in a good way) going on. There's always a close game nearing a finish, a funky offense to watch and small-school madness to follow. Each year I create a road map for getting the most out of the season. Here's how to enjoy yourself to the fullest this fall. Watch the big games (duh) Sometimes you have to search for the fun, and other times it's staring you in the face. The spectacle of a big game is one of college football's best draws. Here are the three games from each week that feature (A) the highest combined projected SP+ ratings and (B) a projected scoring margin (per SP+) of less than 10 points. (Games between two teams in the preseason Coaches Poll are in bold.) Week 1: Clemson at LSU, Louisville vs. Ole Miss, SMU at Florida State Week 2: Ohio State at Texas, Oklahoma at Michigan, Arizona at BYU Week 3: LSU at Ole Miss, Florida at Auburn, SMU at Louisville Week 4: Oregon at USC, Oklahoma at Georgia, Texas A&M at LSU Week 5: Miami at Clemson, Florida at Missouri, Auburn at Tennessee Week 6: Georgia at Alabama, Oklahoma vs. Texas, Texas A&M at Missouri Week 7: Ohio State at Indiana, Notre Dame at BYU, Alabama at Tennessee Week 8: Indiana at Michigan, Texas A&M at Alabama, Tennessee at South Carolina Week 9: South Carolina at Oklahoma, Auburn at Ole Miss, Washington at Nebraska Week 10: Oregon at Ohio State, Miami at Notre Dame, Georgia at Ole Miss Week 11: Texas at LSU, Tennessee at Texas A&M, Ole Miss at Oklahoma Week 12: Texas A&M at Oklahoma, Indiana at Washington, LSU at Tennessee Week 13: Texas at Texas A&M, Oklahoma at Missouri, Auburn at Alabama Because of the close-game requirement, this isn't simply a list of games featuring the best teams in the country. But if this list is any indication, you're going to be watching quite a bit of Oklahoma (seven games on this list), Texas A&M (six), LSU (five), Ole Miss (five) and Tennessee (five). The SEC dominates a list like this because of both its depth and its propensity for dramatic games -- 50% of conference matchups were decided by one score last season. But plenty of non-SEC teams show up two or three times as well. Lane Kiffin vs. Ole Miss It's my long-standing position that if Halloween falls on a Saturday, LSU and Ole Miss should always be playing that day (as an homage to Billy Cannon and the 1959 game). I'm willing to make an exception just this once, however, because LSU's Week 3 trip to Oxford deserves the biggest spotlight imaginable. Tonight on @SECNetwork it's our annual Marty & McGee Talkin' Season specials, Monday & Tuesday at 7 PM ET. We kick it off with Lane Kiffin. I asked him the question people always ask me. So, our @E60 doc, was that all bulls-t? pic.twitter.com/u8Pdnqo9tX — Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) August 10, 2026 Lane Kiffin's decision to leave Ole Miss for LSU -- and to do it before the Rebels' eventual run to the College Football Playoff semifinals had begun -- created one of the most acrimonious coaching changes in the history of the sport. (Granted, it might also be only the second-most acrimonious move of Kiffin's career.) And this game will be as important as it is hostile. Week 10 is almost too much (and Week 4 is pretty spectacular too) Six of the 13 weeks listed above have at least three closely projected games between (preseason) ranked opponents. That's pretty exciting, but two weeks in particular stand out. First, Week 4 gives us a nice September wrap-up opportunity led by Oregon's trip to USC. It's a game that features similar vibes to last year's end-of-September Oregon-Penn State clash, if we're being honest. Meanwhile, the SEC's ferocious slate includes not only the second-ever Oklahoma-Georgia game (the first one will be awfully hard to top) but also A&M at LSU (we're going to be watching so much LSU in September), Texas at Tennessee, Ole Miss at Florida, South Carolina at Alabama, Vanderbilt at Auburn and Missouri at Mississippi State. Throw in Iowa at Michigan and a Friday night Clemson at Cal game, and that's almost as good as it gets. Week 10 pretty much is as good as it gets. It leads, of course, with Oregon-Ohio State and maybe the two most anticipated 2025 rematches of the season (Miami-Notre Dame and Georgia-Ole Miss), but it keeps going. Alabama visits LSU, Texas A&M visits South Carolina (another rematch of a 2025 absurdity), Texas visits Missouri and Penn State visits Washington, and I haven't even mentioned that we get the Holy War (BYU at Utah), that the Friday night games are TCU at Arizona and USF at East Carolina, and that MACtion starts! That's almost too much! I want to move some of that stuff to Week 9! Soak in the weirdest of weird Week 0s before they take it away from us Be it through legislation or simple changes in scheduling rules, one of the ways we'll be attempting to rein in the overloaded December-January portion of the college football schedule -- which this season will end Jan. 25 -- will be to move things up a bit and get everyone started the week before Labor Day weekend in what is now Week 0. Our days of focusing on just a smattering of games (and, potentially, starting the season with a game in Ireland) are numbered. If it's any consolation, though, this year's Week 0 slate is among the weirdest, most fun ones yet. Our eight-game FBS slate will start in Dublin with TCU vs. North Carolina and either the continuation of the "UNC under disarray under Belichick!" narrative or the entrance of a new "Belichick rebound?" one. But that's only the start: We also get NC State at Virginia in Charlottesville (instead of Brazil, as originally proposed), and in Memphis at UNLV we get a damn-near elimination game in the race for the Group of 6's automatic CFP berth. Hawai'i at Stanford is a rematch of the game that introduced us to the Tokyo Toe a year ago, and Jacksonville State at North Dakota State is NDSU's first official game as an FBS program (and a rematch of the 2015 FCS title showdown). We also get a massive slate at the lower levels of the sport. Starting that Thursday, there are 22 games involving FCS teams, including some of the top programs in the subdivision -- Montana State (at Utah Tech), Montana (vs. Southern Utah), Tarleton State (vs. Prairie View A&M), South Dakota State (vs. Stetson), Illinois State (vs. St. Francis, an NAIA opponent), UC Davis (at Portland State), Rhode Island (at Merrimack) and South Dakota (vs. Central Connecticut). There are also closely projected games such as Abilene Christian at Lamar and Monmouth at Tennessee Tech. We're not done! There are huge Division II games, such as Ferris State at Pittsburg State, Grand Valley State at Charleston and Minnesota Duluth at Slippery Rock, plus huge NAIA games in Benedictine at Morningside and Dordt at Indiana Wesleyan! It's a smorgasbord of football -- albeit one that might require you to hop on your laptop to find a feed to stream -- but it's also a chance to check on a bunch of teams besides the ones you'll be watching the rest of the season. Perfect. Training wheels off at quarterback Last year, seven of the top 10 teams in the preseason AP poll had new starting quarterbacks, and the three that didn't (Penn State, Clemson and LSU) pretty quickly disappeared from the scene. The season was all about new stars emerging. This year, it's all about who's coming back. Eight of the top 10 teams in the coaches' poll return their starters, and the two that don't -- defending finalists Indiana (Josh Hoover) and Miami (Darian Mensah) -- have brought on extremely experienced transfers. The knowns are heavy this year, and the quarterback play should be dynamite. Texas' Arch Manning will dominate headlines because he's Arch Manning, but you can make a pretty justifiable case that he isn't even one of the top five returning QBs in the country. (You also can make a case that he's the best. I'm just saying there's a lot of competition.) Ignore all strength-of-schedule conversations until November if possible I'm just saying they're going to be loud and frequent. And with the loser of Week 2's Texas-Ohio State game still facing a number of challenges afterward, the complaining/whining will start pretty early. (Especially if Texas loses.) My stance is clear and consistent: The SEC and Big Ten teams with brutal schedules this season signed up for it by joining those conferences and will be extremely well compensated for their struggles. They aren't entitled to playoff spots simply because their schedules are harder than other teams that never got a Power Two invitation (and wouldn't turn one down if they did). But I'm pretty sure quite a few head coaches disagree with me on that one and will air their complaints as frequently as possible. Ignore them until the home stretch. You'll be happier and healthier. The Pepto-Bismol All-Stars Each year, certain teams play in an inordinate number of close games. Last season, for example, Army and Jacksonville State ended up in nine one-score finishes, and Arizona State, Arkansas State, Iowa State, Missouri State, Ohio, Ole Miss and Virginia played in eight. According to my final preseason SP+ projections, there are a whopping 19 teams with at least eight games projected to finish within one score, including four with nine such games and two with 10! You will be watching many of their fourth quarters. 10 games: Army, California 9 games: Colorado, NC State, San Diego State, Vanderbilt 8 games: Baylor, Florida, Georgia Southern, Kansas State, Louisville, Old Dominion, Ole Miss, Oregon State, Pittsburgh, South Alabama, UCF, Utah, Virginia Army could lead the pack in anxious finishes for two straight seasons. Congratulations? The 4 best title races to follow Conference title games are getting a bad rap at the moment -- like weird Week 0s, they could be on the chopping block in a universe with a redesigned calendar and expanded CFP. (Once again: The problem isn't the existence of the title games, it's the fact that they're the 13th game. We can work around that and still hold on to the title games.) But before we find ourselves in a world of four-way conference ties and no title games, let's soak up what should be some pretty damn fun 2026 title races. 1. American Conference. Based on last week's SP+ numbers, eight of the American's 14 teams have a projected conference win total within one game of the top two: Navy (5.8 average conference wins), Memphis (5.3), East Carolina (5.2), UTSA (5.2), Army (4.6), USF (4.6), Tulane (4.6) and Tulsa (4.3). And the next two schools on the list -- Florida Atlantic (3.7) and Temple (3.7) -- are teams that have solid overachiever potential. This is just about anyone's race, in other words. And from USF at Army and Navy at FAU in Week 2 through Tulane at USF and Tulsa at UTSA in Week 13, there's a big game between some combination of the teams above in nearly every week of the season. Hell yeah. 2. SEC. Again, 50% of SEC conference games finished within one score last year, and seven of 16 teams finished within a game of the top of the league. (That almost made it feel like a letdown when, with all the combinations available, we ended up with the fifth Bama-Georgia title game in nine years.) This year, per SP+, we're starting out with seven teams projected within a game of the top two: Georgia (7.0), Texas (6.0), LSU (5.8), Texas A&M (5.6), Tennessee (5.2), Oklahoma (5.2) and Alabama (5.1). There's no reason to think this race will be any less wild. 3. Mountain West. The new MWC has 10 teams, and five of them are within one projected win of the top: UNLV (5.9), New Mexico (5.4), Hawai'i (5.2), Air Force (5.0) and newcomer North Dakota State (4.9). UNLV has the best overall ranking but is breaking in a new quarterback; New Mexico is the second best but plays all four of the other contenders. The chances of a surprising plot twist or two are pretty strong. 4. Sun Belt West. Only one FBS conference still has divisions, and the Sun Belt West had itself a wild race last season, with four of seven teams finishing within a game of first place. Perhaps not surprisingly, four are projected within 0.3 wins of the top in 2026: Louisiana (5.2), Troy (4.9), Louisiana Tech (4.9) and Arkansas State (4.9). The East division could see a fun race in itself, with James Madison perhaps falling back to the pack and the likes of Old Dominion or Marshall trying to take advantage. But the West should be an absolute battle royale. Watch the weekday games Saturdays are the best, but some of the silliest and best games in a given season happen at other points in the week. The ACC's Friday night slate last year gave us Virginia's overtime win (and field storm) over No. 8 Florida State. Beyond that, the ACC also gave us an otherworldly duo of Louisville over No. 2 Miami and Cal over North Carolina in the same night, and we got one of the best MACtion games in years with Kent State's wild win over Akron. This season's Tuesday-through-Friday offerings give us a fun mix of high-profile Friday games, rivalries, well-anticipated rematches, key American Conference battles and, in general, midweek silliness. Here's a curated selection: Week 1: Colorado at Georgia Tech (Thursday). Week 2: Missouri at Kansas (Friday), Rutgers at Boston College (Friday) Week 3: Syracuse at Pitt (Thursday), Houston at Texas Tech (Friday) Week 4: Northwestern at Indiana (Friday), Clemson at California (Friday) Week 5: North Texas at Tulsa (Thursday), Pitt at Virginia Tech (Friday) Week 6: Jacksonville State at Kennesaw State (Wednesday), USF at UTSA (Thursday), Iowa at Washington (Friday), Florida State at Louisville (Friday) Week 7: Georgia Southern at Old Dominion (Thursday), Memphis at Tulane (Friday), Washington at Purdue (Friday) Week 8: East Carolina at Memphis (Thursday), James Madison at Appalachian State (Thursday), Air Force at Wyoming (Friday) Week 9: Delaware at Western Kentucky (Tuesday), Troy at James Madison (Thursday), Baylor at UCF (Friday) Week 10: Buffalo at Miami (Ohio) (Tuesday), Toledo at Sacramento State (Wednesday), UTSA at Florida Atlantic (Thursday), TCU at Arizona (Friday), USF at East Carolina (Friday) Week 11: Ohio at Miami (Ohio) (Tuesday), Memphis at USF (Thursday), Louisiana at Louisiana-Monroe (Thursday), Houston at Colorado (Friday) Week 12: Iowa State at UCF (Friday), Clemson at Duke (Friday) Week 13: Miami (Ohio) at Western Michigan (Tuesday), TCU at Texas Tech (Thursday) Watch as much smaller-school football as you can I say it every year, and it never becomes less true: The more smaller-school action you watch, the healthier you become and the more you love college football. We discussed the strangely delightful Week 0 slate above, but here are three (or so) huge smaller-school games for each week of the season. North Dakota State's FBS departure means we lost the annual Dakota Marker game (NDSU vs. South Dakota State) for the moment, but thanks in part to loaded early Division III and NAIA slates, it seems like we have more huge games than ever. Top-10 matchups are in bold. (I used coaches' polls for FCS and Division III and SP+ projections for Division II and NAIA.) Week 0 (Aug. 29): No. 1 Ferris State at No. 10 Pittsburg State (D-II) (Thursday), No. 6 Dordt at No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan (NAIA) (Friday), No. 5 Benedictine at No. 4 Morningside (NAIA) Week 1 (Sept. 5): No. 2 Bethel at No. 1 North Central (D-III), No. 3 Mount Union at No. 5 Wheaton (D-III), No. 7 Wingate at No. 5 Delta State (D-II) Week 2 (Sept. 12): No. 1 North Central at No. 9 Wartburg (D-III), No. 1 Ferris State at No. 12 Central Washington (D-II), No. 2 Grand Valley State at No. 21 Ashland (D-II) Week 3 (Sept. 19): No. 5 Benedictine at No. 1 Grand View (NAIA), No. 4 Morningside at No. 6 Dordt (NAIA), No. 9 Youngstown State at No. 3 South Dakota State (FCS), No. 7 Wisconsin-River Falls at No. 9 Wartburg (D-III) Week 4 (Sept. 26): No. 2 Montana at No. 6 UC Davis (FCS), No. 11 Montana Tech at No. 9 College of Idaho (NAIA), No. 12 South Dakota at No. 9 Youngstown State (FCS) Week 5 (Oct. 3): No. 3 South Dakota State at No. 4 Illinois State (FCS), No. 8 Indiana Wesleyan at No. 7 Marian (NAIA), No. 7 Wisconsin-River Falls at No. 12 Wisconsin-Whitewater (D-III) Week 6 (Oct. 10): No. 5 Wheaton at No. 1 North Central (D-III), No. 14 Georgetown (Kentucky) at No. 3 Lindsey Wilson (NAIA), No. 12 Wisconsin-Whitewater (D3) at No. 10 Wisconsin-La Crosse (D-III) Week 7 (Oct. 17): No. 1 Ferris State at No. 2 Grand Valley State (D-II), No. 7 Wisconsin-River Falls at No. 6 Wisconsin-Platteville (D-III), No. 3 South Dakota State at No. 10 North Dakota (FCS), No. 13 St. Thomas at No. 2 Keiser (NAIA) Week 8 (Oct. 24): No. 11 Lehigh at No. 8 Villanova (FCS), No. 10 North Dakota at No. 12 South Dakota (FCS), No. 25 Michigan Tech at No. 1 Ferris State (D-II) Week 9 (Oct. 31): No. 12 South Dakota at No. 3 South Dakota State (FCS), No. 10 North Dakota at No. 9 Youngstown State (FCS), No. 8 John Carroll at No. 13 DePauw (D-III) Week 10 (Nov. 7): No. 7 Wisconsin-River Falls at No. 10 Wisconsin-La Crosse (D-III), No. 4 Illinois State at No. 10 North Dakota (FCS), No. 15 Abilene Christian at No. 5 Tarleton State (FCS) Week 11 (Nov. 14): No. 4 Illinois State at No. 9 Youngstown State (FCS), No. 6 Wisconsin-Platteville at No. 10 Wisconsin-La Crosse (D-III), No. 6 Dordt at No. 12 Northwestern (IA) (NAIA), No. 10 Pittsburg State vs. No. 15 Northwest Missouri in Kansas City (D-II), No. 23 Cortland vs. Ithaca at Yankee Stadium (D-III), Coast Guard vs. Merchant Marine in Washington (D-III) Week 12 (Nov. 21): No. 2 Montana at No. 1 Montana State (FCS), No. 12 South Dakota at No. 4 Illinois State (FCS), No. 11 Lehigh at Lafayette (FCS) Better yet, adopt a small-school team Want the full smaller-school experience? Follow a team (preferably a good one) from start to finish. Here are five particularly choice options. Youngstown State. YSU's most famous run of brilliance came under Jim Tressel, whose name evokes a certain type of "relentless run game and linebackers with the biggest shoulder pads imaginable" aesthetic. At the moment, however, the Penguins are something completely different. With quarterback Beau Brungard (3,234 passing yards, 1,468 rushing yards) running the show, YSU scored at least 30 points 10 times last season and averaged 42 points over the last seven games. The offensive coordinator running the show? Mike Yurcich! The former OC at Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Penn State has free rein to experiment, and Brungard is a steady provider of magic. You need to watch as many Penguins games as possible this season, and you'll get plenty of opportunities: They play five ranked FCS opponents, and they visit Kentucky in Week 1. Kutztown. Division II's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference has a number of fun teams to follow -- Slippery Rock has been a favorite of mine in recent years -- but the best program in the conference by far has been Kutztown. The Golden Bears are three-time defending PSAC champions, they play in Andre Reed Stadium, and with quarterback Judd Novak (3,070 passing yards, 547 rushing yards) and running back Steven Burkhardt (1,106 rushing yards), they might have the scariest backfield in Division II. They topped 40 points 10 times last season and rolled to the D-II semis before falling to Harding. South Carolina State. We need some steely defense on this list, so we should save a spot for the defending Celebration Bowl champs and two-time defending MEAC champs. The Bulldogs allowed 17 or fewer points seven times last season, and of the 11 spots on the preseason MEAC first-team defense, they claimed five, including three on the defensive line (Joshua Barker, Ka'Von Chisolm and Jordan Dollard). In his last four seasons as a head coach (including two at SC State), Chennis Berry is 41-8; his name should be on a lot of FBS athletic directors' lists. Merchant Marine. There should always be room in your life for some sweet, sweet option football, and there might not be a more delightful version of it than the Merchant Marine attack run by quarterback Bubba Mustain. His performance in last season's rivalry win over Coast Guard (274 rushing yards, 150 passing yards in six completions, five combined touchdowns) was absolutely ridiculous. The Mariners are projected favorites in eight of nine games this season. Choose your Wisconsin fighter. If you read my Friday previews -- and I hope you do! -- you know of my abiding love for the greatest conference in college football, Division III's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. It is by far the deepest conference in D-III, it produced an out-of-nowhere national champion last season (River Falls), and of the conference's eight teams, four landed in the preseason top 12 -- No. 6 Platteville, No. 7 River Falls, No. 10 La Crosse, No. 12 Whitewater -- and two more received votes (No. 27 Oshkosh, No. 46 Stout). Be it history (Whitewater has the edge there), color scheme (hard to beat Platteville's blue and orange), underdog bona fides (Oshkosh is intriguing) or simply who's nouveau riche (River Falls) or who's due (La Crosse's last national title was 31 years ago), choose your school and ride with it for the season. You'll enjoy yourself immensely.