Four Months and 18 Days

Four months and 18 days. That's how much longer we have to wait for God to smile upon the earth and for the bands to strike up from Clemson to Corvallis. Four months and 18 days as I write this is how long we have to wait for college football to arrive.

Only a couple teams are still scrambling to fill the last slots on their schedule, and the week one program, starting on August 31st, is pretty much set.

Unlike many purists, I love the non-conference season, and I love that the NCAA has added a 12th game and hence an extra non-conference foe for most teams, to the schedule. Firstly, the more non-conference games, the more reference points we have in comparing the different conferences, which makes better barstool debates. Secondly, it's simply intriguing to watch two teams who are not historically tied to one another battle it out for possibly the only time.

I've highlighted the best 10 games (non-conference or otherwise, in no particular order), upcoming on week one below.

South Carolina @ Mississippi State

This is the first BCS vs. BCS game of the year (Thursday, August 31st), as well as the first intraconference game in any conference. It pits a well-liked coach that a lot of us want to see succeed against a coach with a reputation for childishness that a lot of us want to see taken down a notch or two. Should be interesting.

Nevada @ Fresno State

This might be highest-quality game of the Thursday, August 31st games. It features what will likely turn out to be the best two teams in the WAC. Most of us who saw it won't soon forget the USC/Fresno State game last year, but Nevada won the conference.

USC @ Arkansas

I said these games come in "no particular order," but I would make this one my Game of the Week, if such a thing were up to me. It's game one of the post-Matt Leinart/Reggie Bush regime for USC, and it comes in hostile SEC territory against a team looking for payback after being just humiliated by the Trojans a year ago. I expect it to be surprisingly close. ESPN has announced that the game has been moved up a night to Sunday, Labor Day eve.

Cal @ Tennessee

Both of these teams are looking to rebound and prove something. Phil Fulmer actually took out a newspaper ad last year apologizing to their fans for their uncharacteristically poor showing, and while Cal didn't fall that far, they will be on the road and looking to prove the 2004 was no fluke.

Notre Dame @ Georgia Tech

I'm calling it right now. Tech wins in an "upset." Maybe it's the Notre Dame hater in me (okay, it definitely is), but I don't think Charlie Weis is going to sustain his round one success any more than Tyrone Willingham was able to. Their slips started to show at the end of last season, not only by getting throttled by Ohio State, but by squeaking it out against Stanford in their regular season finale. Let's see if they give Weis more rope to hang themselves with than they did Willingham. Wait, that's no question. Of course they will.

Marshall @ West Virginia

West Virginia lawmakers got involved in trying to mandate this game, which ought to be played every year. It would've been even better if they would've done this a few years ago, when Marshall was better than they are now and West Virginia, probably slightly worse.

Stanford at Oregon

Isn't it odd for the Pac-10 to play a week one conference game? This ain't the ACC. Anyway, Stanford will try to build on the aforementioned near upset of Notre Dame they capped last season off with, and although Oregon should win easily all the same being as tough at home as they are, surely God is eventually going to smite them for their hideous uniforms with a couple 0-12 seasons.

Florida State @ Miami

Monday night football for the 'Noles and 'Canes has become something of a niche they've carved out in what I consider to be one of the most overrated rivalries in college football. Okay, that's not fair, it's probably not overrated as both these teams are good for national championship runs with frequency. We'll call it the most uninteresting to Kevin Beane big college football rivalry. I have similar apathy for Florida/Florida State.

Call me the anti-Lewis Grizzard, the legendary Atlanta Journal-Constitution sportswriter and Southern enthusiast who once wrote of Ohio State/Michigan, "I wouldn't cross the street to watch these two teams play. Two mules fighting over a turnip."

Vanderbilt @ Michigan

The SEC is sending their brightest, if not their best, up to turnip country to likely be pureed into turnip stew by a Vanderbilt team lacking in Cutlery. Then again, Northern Illinois was able to hang around awhile in Michigan, who has a penchant for starting slowly, and the Wolverines are coming off a horrible season by their standards, so who knows. Please rate my "Cutlery" line at IsMyPunFunnyOrNot.com.

UAB @ Oklahoma

This game makes my list because I wanted my list to be a nice, round number like 10, and none of the other games really fits the bill. But the game is not without its charm. Oklahoma was on the receiving end of last year's first upset, against TCU. Of course, as the year wore on, we discovered that it wasn't really an upset at all, but perhaps UAB can keep the karma going anyway.