Week 2 College Football Open Thread

As Tallahassee renders its garments and gnashes their teeth, happening to only the single most loathsome fan base in the country, as anyone who has dealt with FSUTwitter can attest, there are games involving good teams this week. Here’s the top 10, this time in order of time, which makes more sense than how I did it last week. Remember, I am using the Athletic ranking of teams from 1-134 to determine the best 10 games.

1. #3 Texas at #9 Michigan, 12, Fox. Obviously this is the game of the week. Michigan did not look very good against Fresno, really eeking out the win, which I suggested was possible last week. Texas looked very good, though it was Colorado State. Both played Mountain West teams, but Fresno is probably much better than CSU. And then this game is in Ann Arbor. Should be a fun one. If I was a betting man (and given my track record of sports predictions, thank God I am not), I’d go with Texas. Sorry Paul.
2. #19 Kansas State at #44 Tulane, 12, ESPN. This has upset special written all over it. Tulane is one of the best mid-major teams, KSU probably isn’t that great, while the Wildcats could certainly win this, don’t sleep on the Green Wave at home.
3. #52 Arkansas at #21 Oklahoma State, 12, ABC. This makes the top 10 strictly on it being two Power 4 teams playing who might not be abjectly terrible. Cowboys are probably pretty good, would take them going away.
4. #17 Iowa at #18 Iowa State, 3:30, CBS. If a team with an offense as historically bad as Iowa can ever play a fun game, it’s against their rivals from Ames. Iowa actually scored like 40 last week and while that was against a week opponent, that was pretty damn good for them. Iowa State has a real shot to win the restructured Big 12 that doesn’t have Texas or Oklahoma. There’s kind of a lot on the line here. I’ll take Iowa State in a typically low-scoring game.
5. #54 South Carolina at #43 Kentucky, 3:30, ABC. This should be good enough as a battle of two SEC teams where one might be good but the other probably won’t be. I generally have slightly more belief in Kentucky.
6. #55 Cal at #34 Auburn, 3:30, ESPN2. If you believe Cal isn’t going to get blasted out of Alabama here, I have some very affordable properties in Berkeley to move to you.
7. #59 South Florida at #4 Alabama, 7, ESPN. Well, something had to be the 10th best game of the week and I guess it is this one. Bama is favored by 29. Seems low.
8. #13 Tennessee at #27 North Carolina State, 7:30, ABC. Maybe NC State is good? Someone in the ACC has to be. Maybe? Anyway, if this was at home, I’d have the Vols going away, but on the road? It should be close but I’d give the advantage to Tennessee.
9. #50 Colorado at #35 Nebraska, 7:30, NBC. Deion is probably a fraud as a coach and it will all collapse next year when he loses his son and Travis Hunter. Nebraska is trying to put it together under Matt Ruhle, but the Huskers really need to prove they can win a decent game. I have no respect for Colorado, but I guess I would take them here, especially with Nebraska -7.5.
10. #29 Boise State at #10 Oregon, 10PM, Peacock. I was at the Oregon-Idaho game last week and I will be at this game too. That Idaho game was one of the most frustrating games I’ve ever seen. The Ducks played well except for the offensive line, which was an absolute atrocity, getting complete manhandled. Oregon averaged a mere 2.9 yards per carry and gave up 3 sacks. Last year they gave up 5 sacks total. If Oregon doesn’t figure this out, they won’t make the playoffs. I mean, it’s IDAHO!!!! On the other hand, the Boise defense was an utter sieve against Georgia Southern last week. Boise does have a very good offense, but I have quite a bit of confidence in the Oregon defense. We will see, but since I am taking Dad to this game too, can they at least play well?