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The college football week gets underway with three games on Friday night, followed by a huge 75-game slate on Saturday. Over-all, 29 of those games are FBS matchups with FCS schools.
There are 52 additional games in the FCS with 16 of those featuring games against D2 programs while one school, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, faces an NAIA school (Arkansas Baptist).
All eight Ivy League remain idle with their season set to begin September 21. Stonehill and Marist both see their first action this week, and Ball State becomes the last FBS team to open its 2024 campaign.
This will be the first week on the sideline for Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz after he served a suspension for the improper recruitment of quarterback Cade McNamara in 2022. He comes back just in time for Cy-Hawk Week as Iowa gets set to host state rival Iowa State. The Hawkeyes have a 47-23 lead in the series after last year's victory in Ames avenged its loss at home in 2022 when the Cyclones snapped a 6-game losing streak to Iowa.
Easily the biggest game, in terms of marquee value, is Texas at Michigan, with the odds rising to 7.5 in favor of the Longhorns after opening at 3.5. The Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com has Texas by 7.86. The one thing we can say with certainty about this game is that Steve Sarkisian has an embarrassment of riches at quarterback with Arch Manning backing up Quinn Ewers, even if Ewers won't call for backup as a new deputy in Fansville.
On the downside for Texas, a running back needs to emerge after the leading returning rusher, CJ Baxter, was lost for the season with a training camp knee injury in early August. In Saturday's 52-0 win over Colorado State, multiple rushers shared the load with Jerrick Gibson and Jaydon Blue getting most of the work.
Michigan only has seven starters back from a year ago, and just two on offense. Of course, the Wolverines also have a new head coach with assistant Sherrone Moore taking over for Jim Harbaugh after he returned to the NFL to lead the LA Chargers. Moore cut his teeth as the interim head coach for multiple games in which Harbaugh was suspended last season, but that national championship squad could have run on autopilot.
That game is one of just two this week pitting AP Top 25 teams against each other. The Longhorns are ranked 3rd and the Wolverines 10th. Texas is also 3rd in the AFCA Coaches Poll and FWAA-NFF Super16 Poll while Michigan is 9th in each.
The other AP ranked vs ranked matchup is No. 14 Tennessee versus No. 24 NC State in the Duke's Mayo Classic in Charlotte. The Vols are 7.5 point favorites and a 7.12-point computer play.
In the FCS, the Coaches' Poll ranked battles have No. 20 North Dakota hosting No.4 Montana, while No. 11 Incarnate Word goes to Brookings to battle the two-time defending national champion and currently top-ranked South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
Friday night's FBS action features BYU at SMU, and Duke at Northwestern.
Some of the other more interesting games on Saturday include Georgia Tech at Syracuse, App State at Clemson, Mississippi State at Arizona State, Cal at Auburn, Baylor at Utah, and Boise State at Oregon.
We'll even throw Sam Houston at UCF in the mix of games to watch after SHU won bug at Rice last Saturday.
We also get Pitt and Cincinnati, Colorado at Nebraska, Kansas State at Tulane, South Carolina at Kentucky, Michigan State at Maryland, and Texas Tech at Washington State.
To us, one of the more enticing FCS games to watch is member West Georgia going to Abilene Christian. The Wolves opened their first FCS season with a 38-29 upset of Samford while ACU had Texas Tech on the ropes until deciding to go for two points in the first overtime and falling 52-51.
Kennesaw, which moved up from the FCS this season, will host its first game as a FBS program when the Owls take on Louisiana-Lafayette.
Last season had 117 of the 133 FBS schools facing one FCS opponent, and Army played two such games for a total of 118 FBS-FCS matchups.
Of the 16 FBS schools that did NOT play a FCS program, 7 were in the B1G (Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue, Wisconsin). 6 more are evenly split between the Big 12 (Houston, Oklahoma, Texas) and Pac-12 (Colorado, USC, Washington). The other three were Liberty (CUSA) , UTSA (American), and Virginia Tech (ACC).
The FBS programs are 60-1 against the FCS schools. They were 114-4 last year. Over-all, the FBS is a collective 1,860-153 (.924) since we began tracking this in 2003.
These were the FCS wins in 2023:
September 9: Idaho 33, Nevada 6
September 9: Southern Illinois 14, Northern Illinois 12
September 9: Fordham 40, Buffalo 37
September 16: Sacramento State 30, Stanford 23
In 2024, there are 121 scheduled scheduled matchups between FBS and FCS schools with 119 schools playing one such game, while Hawaii and UMass each play two.
This year, 15 schools do not play a FCS opponent and 5 are in the B1G (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC and UCLA). Texas is the only school in the SEC that will not play a FCS program. The same is true for Virginia Tech in the ACC. In fact, Texas and Virginia Tech, along with Michigan and Houston, are repeats from last year's list of schools that played all FBS programs.
2024 FCS wins vs. FBS:
August 24: Montana State 35, New Mexico 31
GEORGIA - Won 40 straight regular season games, 25 straight at home, and 15 straight true road wins.
Last: Won 34-3 vs. Clemson in Atlanta.
Next: Hosts Tennessee Tech (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
MICHIGAN - Won 16 straight over-all, 26 straight conference games.
Last: 30-10 win at home over Fresno State on Saturday, August 31 (first of five straight home games)
Next: Hosts Texas on Saturday, September 7
VANDERBILT - Had lost 10 straight over-all.
Last: 34-27 OT win over Virginia Tech on Saturday, August 31
Next: Hosts Alcorn State (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
KENT STATE - Lost 10 straight over-all
Last: 55-24 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday, August 31
Next: Hosts St. Francis, AP (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
ULM - Had lost 10 straight over-all. Has still lost 10 straight conference games.
Last: 30-14 win at home over Jackson State (FCS) on Thursday, August 29
Next: Hosts UAB on Saturday, September 7
STANFORD - Lost 10 straight home games.
Last: 34-27 loss at home to TCU on Friday, August 30
Next: Hosts Cal Ply (FCS) on Saturday, September 7
TEMPLE - Lost 15 straight true road games.
Last: 51-3 loss at Oklahoma on Friday, August 30
Next: Visits Navy on Saturday, September 7
Also See: Current Longest FCS Streaks. Included in FCS preview.