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Week One features one of the top favorites of the Big Ten going up against a team and coach facing a must win season. The Michigan State Spartans did much to reclaim respect and credibility with a strong 10-win season that followed the worst ever year for head coach Mark Dantonio since his arrival in 2007. For the Utah State Aggies, they have fallen off the heights of 30 wins in three years from 2012 through 2014. Three consecutive losing seasons have head coach Matt Wells facing a more skeptica... 

Among the most attractive Friday night openers for Week One is the matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and the visiting Army Black Knights. These are two college football programs regarded for winning despite respectively strong academic requirements at their schools which are also nothing close to being football factories. Despite that both teams have enjoyed recent success and appear to be set to sustain it for 2018. Yet their matchup is also one of opposites as far as offensive styles and ab... 

Friday night action for Week One includes a team that continues to garner respect and betting activity and the highest expectations in the history of their program. The Wisconsin Badgers were one touchdown shy of making the College Football Playoff last December and have almost all of their offense back including all five starters from what is considered to be the best offensive line in the country. For the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers an opening game at Madtown may pay a lot of bills but at the... 

Week One gives all of us a brief respite from all of the recent off the field issues that have dominated training camp news. At least one would think. But when it comes to Saturday’s game at Columbus between the Oregon State Beavers and Ohio State Buckeyes the story line will be primarily focused on the one man that will be absent from the field. Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer is out due to suspension. Fortunately for the loaded Buckeyes it will likely not matter against a vastly undermanned ... 

The Maryland Terrapins cannot wait to start the regular season. To say it’s been a tumultuous offseason for head coach DJ Durkin and the Terps is an understatement. Durkin has been under heavy criticism due to a number of actions and allegations. In late May, offensive lineman Jordan McNair collapsed during an offseason workout and died two weeks later. McNair’s tragic death led to some digging into the program and two weeks ago, there were reports that Durkin had fostered a toxic environment wi... 

Who’s ready for a good old-fashioned shootout? That’s what you should expect when the Mississippi Rebels and Texas Tech Red Raiders square off in Week 1 action. Texas Tech is in a make or break season with Kliff Kingsbury. Kingsbury started off strong in his first year in Lubbock, posting an 8-5 record, but he has failed to win more than seven games in a season since that point. Fans and the administration are growing restless with their former star quarterback, and another middling year might b... 

All aboard the Lane Train! Lane Kiffin’s first year in Boca Raton as the head coach of the Florida Atlantic Owls was a smashing success. After a 1-3 start that included a head scratcher of a loss to Buffalo, the Owls ran the table in Conference USA play. They crushed North Texas for the Conference USA Championship, and they followed that up by blasting Akron 50-3 in the Boca Raton Bowl. FAU has one of the longest winning streaks in the country, and the Owls have a chance to make some serious noi... 

The Stanford Cardinal has been the class of the Pac-12 North since the league expanded, and the expectation remains the same heading into 2018. With another legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in Bryce Love leading the offense, the Cardinal is looking for its fifth division title in eight years. But they better not overlook the San Diego State Aztecs, who won last year’s meeting and should contend for the Mountain West title. The West Coast powers kick off Week 1 on Friday night.... 

Coming off their first winning season since 2002 and their first bowl appearance and bowl victory since the JFK Administration, the New Mexico State Aggies were eager to get the 2018 season underway. So eager in fact that they opened the year with a pair of games in less than a week. The Aggies begin life as an independent after getting the boot from the Sun Belt. They are hanging around the FBS ranks to take on Power Five schools like the Minnesota Golden Gophers in Week 1, who they help initia... 

New Central Florida coach Josh Heupel has big shoes to fill as he embarks on his first year with the program. The Knights were the only undefeated FBS team last season, capping a perfect 13-0 campaign with a Peach Bowl victory over Auburn, the only team to beat CFP champion Alabama. The success came at a price, however, when Scott Frost was lured back to Nebraska to change the fortunes of that program. Heupel and the Knights jump right into AAC action with a Week 1 matchup against the Connecticu... 

Week one’s best matchup for Thursday night is a pair of dark horse teams looking to surprise in the Big Ten West Division. The Purdue Boilermakers are back! In just one season on the job head coach Jeff Brohm gave this slumping program its belief again. Purdue was tough, smart and productive en route to a surprise 7-6 record capped off with a Foster Farms Bowl win last year. The Northwestern Wildcats are coming off their second ten-win season in three years as they finished 10-3 and as Music Cit... 

As college football fanatics celebrate Week One’s Thursday night opening of the regular season there is an intriguing handicap of an Atlantic Coast Conference over achiever against a Group of Five team stuck in the muck but hosting what for them is a big home opener against a Power Five school. The Tulane Green Wave have made one bowl game since 2002 but will get their shot for national attention against the visiting Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Wake Forest is coming off their second straight bowl... 

For the first time since back-to-back Holiday Bowl appearances in 1987 and 1988, and only the third time in program history, the Wyoming Cowboys played in consecutive bowl games, capturing the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl last season with a win over Central Michigan. Reaching a third straight bowl game for the first time might be a little more difficult without first-round NFL draft pick Josh Allen. But the Cowboys weren’t as productive as they should’ve been with the strong-armed quarterback. A num... 

Week one actually opens on Saturday with what has become known and celebrated as “Week Zero” which is a series of games that serve as an appetizer before action fully kicks off next Thursday. Featured Saturday is the Mountain West Conference opener between the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors and the Colorado State Rams. For Hawaii they have been in a continuous uphill battle since their epic and Cinderella run to the Sugar Bowl in the 2007 season under June Jones. For Colorado State they have been stuck... 

There is a great irony about the defending National Champion and SEC Heavyweight Alabama Crimson Tide. Despite winning the national title game in overtime over the actual SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs the Tide was not even the winner of its own West Division. That honor went to the Auburn Tigers after Bama’s hated arch rival defeated them in the Iron Bowl earlier that season. Furthermore, the Crimson Tide has twice won the national championship without even winning the SEC. Which leads into this year’s evaluation. Alabama is certainly the best team in the West. While Georgia has emerged as the power of the East. And the Bulldogs are doing it Alabama Style! ... 

The great irony of the Pac 12 Conference when it comes to football is that the USC Trojans are the marquee brand and historic traditional power. And certainly, the Men of Troy established supremacy last year with a 31-28 win over the Stanford Cardinal in the Pac 12 Championship Game. Yet Stanford remains the all-time winner of the Pac 12 in its current format. The Cardinal has compiled a total of four appearances in the Pac 12 Title Game and three wins. Furthermore, last year was USC’s first ever appearance in the event. All of which begs the question as to whether or not they are back on their way as the traditional marquee and standard of the league or were merely one hit wonders. The Washington Huskies join Stanford and USC as favorites to win the league. ... 

The Mountain West Conference has become the territory of the San Diego State Aztecs and Boise State Broncos. Since 2014 they have each won two Mountain West Conference Championships. Furthermore, they are the two favorites to again meet in the Mountain West Conference Championship Game for the first time ever. That has been the great irony of their respective success stories. Each time San Diego State or Boise State made the MWC title game the other team would fail to qualify. For example, last year the upstart Fresno State Bulldogs made the MWC title tilt before going down to a tough 17-14 loss to Boise State. ... 

It was a banner year for Central Florida in 2017, winning the American Athletic Conference title, reaching a New Year’s Six bowl and finishing undefeated. But the Knights paid the price for their success with head coach Scott Frost pilfered by Power 5 Nebraska. New coach Josh Huepel looks to pick up where Frost left off and the Knights opened as the favorite to win the league, though they will be tested by South Florida and Temple in the East Division. ... 

The consensus of college football experts and fans is that Oklahoma is the team to beat in the Big 12 Conference. That is despite the fact that record setting Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield is gone to the riches of the NFL and that the defense is not of top shelf caliber. Then again, the word “defense” and Big 12 is something of an oxymoron. Indeed, the Big 12 is basketball on grass with fast break offenses and an afterthought for defense. And this is the philosophy that got Oklahoma into the College Football Playoff last season and ultimately what brought the Sooners down in their loss to a Georgia team that the simply couldn’t hold off. ... 

With less than three weeks to go before the 2018 college football season kicks off there are still teams not fully committed to their starting quarterback as of yet. While most teams have strong favorites and fairly obvious choices there are other teams where its all up in the air. The UCLA Bruins in particular have three bona fide candidates to stand under center in week one. Adding to the intrigue is new head coach Chip Kelly, who is charged with making the underachieving UCLA program an updated version of Kelly’s X-Box offense from his days at Oregon. ... 

The Clemson Tigers are odds-on favorites to win the ACC this season. The Tigers bring back a lot of talent on both sides of the ball, but they do have a battle at quarterback between starter Kelly Bryant and freshman Trevor Lawrence. The Tigers are considered national title contenders, so if they don’t win the ACC it would be a major surprise. Three teams are considered darkhorses, as Miami, Florida State and Virginia Tech are all listed at odds of less than 10-1. All of the other teams are longshots. Let’s look at the odds, teams and predictions. ... 

Stanford’s Bryce Love is a slight favorite to win the Heisman Trophy this season at odds of +655. Love is considered the top running back in the country, but he will have some definitely competition for the award, as Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is the second choice at odds of +694, while Wisconsin running back Jonathan Taylor is listed at odds of +735. Let’s look at the odds, the top contender and make a prediction. ... 

The Alabama Crimson Tide are solid favorites to win the 2018 NCAA Football National Championship, but Alabama is not the only team getting good action on the odds board. The Clemson Tigers are a close second choice in the betting and Ohio State and Georgia are also listed at single-digit odds. Eight teams are listed at odds of less than +2000. Let’s look at the odds to win the title this season, some top contenders and a few other things to watch.... 

For the first time ever, we will have two teams from the same conference square off in the College Football Playoff National Championship.The Alabama Crimson Tide made it here with a dominating defensive effort. They put the clamps on Clemson’s offense in the Sugar Bowl, cruising to a 24-6 victory over the Tigers.... 

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were one of the best teams in the country for the first two months of the season. Notre Dame started the season 8-1 and looked set to break into the College Football Playoff for the first time. A loss to Miami derailed those hopes, but it was still a successful year for Notre Dame. Now, the Irish will look to finish the year with 10 wins. However, the LSU Tigers are standing in their way and they are looking to get a big bowl win in Ed Orgeron’s first season as the head coach....