Week 1 Thursday Preview & CFB Preview Part 3: Schedule
The 3rd and final part of the full season series. It is time for regular season content to begin.
A bit behind schedule, but I wanted to at least drop this Nebraska/Cincinnati preview (audio was on the show last week) into the Substack right before that game gets started, so hopefully it’ll hit some emails if anyone is interested. New show should be out tomorrow.
CFB Preview Part 3 – Future Schedule
This schedule is based on the Tiers in Part 2. Every team listed in a tier above the Honorable Mention tier appears any time they play another team above the Honorable Mention tier.
In order to highlight the biggest match-ups, when teams in Tier 2 or above play each other, the tiers are listed next to the teams. (E-E) would indicate two teams from the “Elite” tier.
Week 1 - Friday
Auburn v Baylor
Week 1 - Saturday
LSU v Clemson (E - E)
Texas v Ohio State (E - E)
Week 1 - Sunday
Notre Dame v Miami (FL)
Week 2 - September 6th
Michigan v Oklahoma (2 - 2)
Week 3 - September 13th
Florida v LSU (E - E)
Georgia v Tennessee
Week 4 - September 20th
Florida v Miami (FL)
Auburn v Oklahoma (2 - 2)
Arizona State v Baylor
Michigan v Nebraska
Week 5 - September 27th
LSU v Ole Miss
Ohio State v Washington
Oregon v Penn State (2 - 1)
Alabama v Georgia
Week 6 - October 4th
Texas v LSU (E - E)
Penn State v UCLA
Michigan State v Nebraska
Week 7 - October 11th
South Carolina v LSU (2 - E)
Oklahoma v Texas (2 - E)
Georgia v Auburn
Indiana v Oregon
Michigan v USC
Nebraska v Maryland
Week 8 - Friday, October 17th
Louisville v Miami (FL)
Week 8 - Saturday, October 18th
Washington v Michigan
Oklahoma v South Carolina (2 - 2)
Tennessee v Alabama
Ole Miss v Georgia
USC v Notre Dame
Maryland v UCLA
Week 9 - October 25th
Alabama v South Carolina (2 - 2)
Michigan v Michigan State
Ole Miss v Oklahoma
UCLA v Indiana
Week 10 - November, 1st
Georgia v Florida
Penn State v Ohio State (1 - E)
Oklahoma v Tennessee
USC v Nebraska
Indiana v Maryland
Week 11 - November 8th
LSU v Alabama (E - 2)
Indiana v Penn State
Nebraska v UCLA
California v Louisville
Week 12 - Friday, November 14th
Clemson v Louisville
Week 12 - Saturday, November 15th
Texas v Georgia
Penn State v Michigan State
Oklahoma v Alabama (2 - 2)
UCLA v Ohio State
Week 13 - November 22nd
Tennessee v Florida
Nebraska v Penn State
USC v Oregon
Michigan v Maryland
Washington v UCLA
Week 14 - November 29th “Rivalry Week”
Clemson v South Carolina (E - 2)
LSU v Oklahoma (E - 2)
Ohio State v Michigan (E - 2)
Alabama v Auburn (2 - 2)
Oregon v Washington
UCLA v USC
There isn’t as much to discuss on the post today, but this is a good resource if you ever fall behind on something like the Weekly Previews on the podcast. While a lot will change, this is my best idea of when the best match-ups of the season will be.
There are not a lot of high profile games in Week 1, but there are potentially THE two highest profile games. As someone who has followed this particular area of College Football for a while, because this Week 1 takes place before Week 1 of the NFL Season, it is also the weekend that perhaps makes the biggest individual impression of any week in the CFB season, at least during the year.
After Week 1, and likely due to the excitement of the return of the NFL, we get our weakest schedules of the season. However, Conference play begins to return soon after, and around Week 4 or Week 5 the schedules begin to strengthen once again.
There are many strong weeks in that period, but the other prime candidate for strongest week of the year is the last week of the season, Rivalry Week. Other than Rivalry Week, no other week in the season has more than two games between teams in Tier 2 or above. Rivalry Week has four such match-ups, with two more games featuring at least one team slightly lower on the tier list.
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Week 1 Preview
Thursday
Nebraska v Cincinnati
Key Players: Dylan Raiola, QB, Nebraska (2027) ; Dane Key, WR, Nebraska via Kentucky (2026) ; Nyziah Hunter, WR, Nebraska via California (2026) ; Jeff Caldwell, WR, Cincinnati via Lindenwood (2026) ; Joe Royer, TE, Cincinnati (2026)
QB Dylan Raiola (27) looks to build on a freshman year that was both promising and full of struggles. In order to help him do so, Nebraska has done a much better job at acquiring talent at the WR position, namely in transfers Dane Key (26) and Nyziah Hunter (26). Key in particular has numbers that will not blow you away, but as a member of a low-passing-volume offense with Kentucky, Key has actually been a pretty solid and productive WR throughout his 3-year CFB career. For Cincinnati, this may not be a team that ends up on these previews very often, but they do have at least two players I’m monitoring, starting with WR Jeff Caldwell (26). Caldwell is the classic player I “want” to love, but cannot necessarily get there yet. Caldwell is fascinating – a late bloomer, but listed at 6’5” now and a member of Bruce Feldman’s Freaks List, Caldwell was a productive Division II WR in 2024, and now takes on a major competition jump in the Big 12. If he produces as the #1 for Cincinnati, he will immediately be on the Day 2 Radar. TE Joe Royer (26) is the more commonly highly mocked player from Cincinnati as a potential TE1 candidate. A former Ohio State Buckeye, Royer did nothing for OSU over the course of a 3-year career, but did breakout for Cincinnati after a transfer in year 4.
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Thanks,
C.J.