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We are starting to get to the meaty parts of the 2024 college football schedule, but we first have to finish our loaded potato which has a few items we could do without. It also has some rather tasty items, and we could always use a little more bacon.
The 64-game slate begins on Thursday with Appalachian State hosting South Alabama. The Jaguars are coming of an 87-10 abuse of Northwestern State (LA), the lowest-ranked team in the FCS. The Mountaineers, meanwhile, traveled to the other side of the state and edged East Carolina 21-19 after falling behind 16-0 in the first quarter. Perhaps they were still dazed and confused from the previous week's 66-20 beatdown that they suffered at Clemson. At any rate, it leaves us with no idea of what to expect from this contest, but the oddsmakers and the computer both like App State at home by a reasonably comfortable amount. The line favored the Mountaineers by 7.5 at the pen and, so far, it hasn't budged. The computer pick, based on the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com, pushes that number to 12.16. We might be a bit concerned about the South Alabama offense being too hot to handle and can not we would be surprised by a Jaguar victory.
The only other Thursday game will be the 400th Nebraska home game sell-out, and the first weeknight game for the 'Huskers since 2001. To make things even more fun, it will be the B!G opener for both the home team and the visitor, the Illinois Fighting Illini, and both teams are 3-0. Nebraska was installed as an 8.5-point favorite, but the computer gives this one a Lee Corso-like "not so fast" and cuts that number in half at 4.04. One thing seems to be for certain, second-year head coach Matt Rhule is doing a much better job of putting Nebraska on the right track.
On Friday night, Washington State (-14.5) hosts San Jose State as a 10.55-point computer choice a week after a 24-19 upset of Washington in the Apple Cup in Seattle.
The ESPN GameDay crew will be in Norman as Oklahoma opens its first SEC slate by hosting an explosive Tennessee team.
On Friday, Stanford plays its first conference game as a new member of the ACC when the Cardinal travel to Syracuse with the Orange favored by 8.5 and the computer saying the separation is 7.46.
The other Saturday games have Arizona State with its first Big 12 game at Texas Tech, while Colorado gets its "welcome abck to the Big 12" game at home against Baylor.
Elsewhere, Cal journeys to Florida State for its first ACC game, SoCal heads to Michigan for its first B1G play date, Washington welcomes Northwestern for its first B1G contest, and Utah invades Oklahoma State for the Utes' first Big 12 clash.
The weekend still includes plenty of interesting interconference games, including Rutgers at Virginia Tech. It's the return game of the home-and-home agreement after these old Big East foes met in Piscataway last year with the Scarlet Knights running away late for a 35-16 win. The Hokies, who opened as just 4.5-point favorites, are an 8.18-point computer favorite.
Boston College hosts Michigan State, a week after losing the lead and falling 27-21 at Missouri. The Eagles (-6.5) are a whopping 16.05-point computer pick as Bill O'Brien looks his team back on track in his first season on Chestnut Hill.
UCLA goes to LSU for the second game this year against a former PAC-12 school for the Bayou Bengals. The other, of course, was a 27-20 loss to USC in Las Vegas on opening weekend.
South Florida will host Miami, easily presenting the 'Canes with their toughest opponent on the young season and, yes, that includes Florida whom they clobbered in Gainesville 41-17.
Lastly, Purdue goes to Oregon State with both schools nursing the severe wounds inflicted on them this past weekend. It's probably good for the Boilermakers to get out of town after they were boiled, roasted, grilled and fried by Notre Dame 66-7 in front of their own crowd. The Beavers have to stay home and deal with their own crowd where they had their dam broken in a 49-14 loss to Oregon in the (un)-Civil War.
Duke is taking one of those "why?" visits by heading to MTSU for a second time in five years after winning 41-18 in 2019. This is MTSU's homecoming game, but it's also a homecoming for new Duke head coach Manny Diaz who was the DC there from 2006-09 under Rick Stockstill. Stockstill got a head-scratching kick out the door at the end of last season after spending 18 years there. At the time of the dismissal, he was the fourth-longest tenured current head coach in the FBS, going 113-111 overall with a solid 82-58 conference record and a 4-6 mark in bowl games that included two bowl wins in the previous two seasons. His replacement? Derek Mason, who never had a winning record in seven seasons as head coach at Vanderbilt, and was fired after an 0-8 start in 2020 (27-55). The 'Dores did make two bowl games with 6-6 records, but lost both.
Notre Dame will host the MAC's Miami (Ohio), two weeks after another MAC school, Northern Illinois, won in South Bend. The MAC sent another message about its toughness this past weekend when Toledo wandered in to SEC Country and blasted Mississippi State.
10 more FBS-FCS games are scheduled for this week including an opportunity for St. Francis (PA) to win its second such game in three weeks after beating Kent State 23-17 two weeks ago. This week, the Red Flash head to Eastern Michigan (-24) where they are 27.53-point computer underdogs.
Meanwhile, doctors for Portland State and Boise State have cleared the game to be played this week after last week's home game for the Vikings against South Dakota was canceled just a few hours before kickoff, due to a feared outbreak of "whooping cough" (pertussis), which can spread easily and affects the lungs. The Broncos are 41.5-point favorites with a 42.90-point computer edge.
Here are all 10 FBS-FCS games this week, in order of lowest-to-highest projected computer margin:
NEVADA (-9.5) by 10.71 over Eastern Washington
UMASS (-21) by 11.84 over Central Connecticut
HAWAII (-8.5) by 16.52 over Northern Iowa
TROY (-23.5) by 19.39 over Florida A&M
PITTSBURGH (-24) by 19.88 over Youngstown State
FIU (-14) by 21.68 over Monmouth
MARYLAND (-19.5) by 25.88 over Villanova
EASTERN MICHIGAN (-24) by 27.53 over St. Francis (PA)
UTSA (-35.50) by 34.70 over Houston Christian
BOISE STATE (-41.5) by 42.90 over Portland State
All 11 games played last week between FBS and FCS schools went to the FBS school to raise their record to 97-4 in such games this season, and a collective 1,897-156 (.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
September 7: St. Francis (PA) 23, Kent State 17
September 7: Idaho 17, Wyoming 13
September 7: Southern Utah 27, UTEP 24 (OT)
GEORGIA - Won 42 straight regular season games, 26 straight at home, and 16 straight true road wins.
Last: Won 13-12 at Kentucky on Saturday, September 14.
Next: at Alabama (after a bye week) on Saturday, September 28.
MICHIGAN - 26 straight conference wins.
Last: Won 28-18 at home over Arkansas State on Saturday, September 14.
Next: Hosts USC on Saturday, September 21.
ARIZONA - Had won 9 straight over-all.
Last: Lost 31-7 at Kansas State on September 14 (designated as a non-conference game).
Next: at Utah (after a bye week) on Saturday, September 28.
MISSOURI - Won 7 straight overall.
Last: Won 27-21 at home over Boston College on Saturday, September 14.
Next: Hosts Vanderbilt on Saturday, September 21.
KENT STATE - Lost 12 straight over-all.
Last: Lost 71-0 at Tennessee on Saturday, September 14.
Next: at Penn State on Saturday, September 21.
ULM - Had lost 10 straight over-all. Has still lost 10 straight conference games.
Last: Won 32-6 at home over UAB on Saturday, September 7
Next: Visits Texas on Saturday, September 21 after a bye week this past weekend.
STANFORD - Had lost 10 straight home games.
Last: Won 41-7 at home over FCS member Cal Poly on Saturday, September 7
Next: Visits Syracuse on Friday, September 20 after a bye week this past weekend.
CHARLOTTE - Had lost 6 straight home games.
Last: Won 27-26 at home over FCS member Gardner-Webb on Saturday, September 14.
Next: Visits Indiana on Saturday, September 21.
UTEP - Lost 6 straight home games.
Last: Lost 28-10 at Liberty on Saturday, September 14.
Next: Visits Colorado State on Saturday, September 21.
TEMPLE - Lost 16 straight true road games.
Last: Lost 28-20 at home to Coastal Carolina on Saturday, September 14.
Next: Hosts Utah State on Saturday, September 21.