Best Opening Weekend of College Football Ever?

While many Americans prepare for their fantasy football drafts this weekend before the NFL season kicks off on Thursday, September 8^th, Christmas has come a week early for football fans with what ESPN is calling the “greatest opening weekend in college football history.”

When you look at these opening weekend match-ups, you’ll understand the hype. #1 Alabama vs #20 USC (Arlington, TX), #18 Georgia vs #22 North Carolina (Atlanta), #2 Clemson at Auburn, #5 LSU at Wisconsin (Green Bay, WI), #10 Notre Dame at Texas, #3 Oklahoma vs #15 Houston, #11 Mississippi vs #4 Florida State (Orlando, FL), #16 UCLA at Texas A&M, and Kansas State at #8 Stanford. Just a half decade ago, this would have seemed like an impossible dream as virtually no coach in the top 25 (or near the top 25) would gamble so early in the season. Traditionally, the opening weeks of the college football season have been riddled with blowout after blowout as coaches of top teams would schedule “cupcake games” to prepare their teams for their tougher conference schedule.

Leonard Fournette is one of the preseason favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. Fournette and the LSU Tigers rumble with the Wisconsin Badgers at Lambeau Field this weekend.

Not anymore. The college football playoff selection committee has made it very clear that the strength of schedule will play a major role in the selection process for the four-team playoff. Scheduling philosophies changed seemingly overnight as athletic directors and coaches shifted focus.

In the old Bowl Championship Series that relied purely on mathematical formulas that favored undefeated records, teams had little incentive to schedule tough non-conference games. The key was getting to 12-0 or 13-0 with little consideration for fans, players or entertainment value. The tables have turned for the better.

To get a better picture of how incredible this opening weekend is; consider that this weekend has four non-conference games between preseason ranked teams; now consider that in 2009 there were four of those … the entire season. In the 2010 season there were only 5.

Another unique factor of the first weekend of college football is the simple economics of big neutral site games with USC and Alabama playing at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX; Georgia and UNC playing in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, GA; LSU and Wisconsin playing at Lambeu Field in Green Bay, WI; and Ole Miss taking on Florida State in the Orlando Citrus Bowl. The big, professional venues provide huge opportunities for both teams and conferences to cash in on these Labor Day Weekend matchups.

The most watched game of the weekend should be the USC-Alabama matchup Saturday night at 8pm on ABC, which should challenge the Notre Dame-Georgia Tech season opener a decade ago as the most watched Saturday Night college football opener ever. While the best matchup of the weekend on paper will come on Monday night with #4 FSU and #11 Ole Miss.

Undoubtedly, the best opening weekend in college football in quite some time … if not, all time.

benslingerland

Ben Slingerland is a young sports business entrepreneur, administrator and marketer who has worked at such organizations like Nike, the NCAA and IMG. Most recently, Ben served as the General Manager and Student-Athlete Advisor for the Lacrosse Program at IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL. Over the span of two and a half years as the General Manager, Ben quadrupled the size of the program and developed it into one of the nation's leading boarding prep school lacrosse programs. Prior to taking over the lacrosse program at IMG Academy, Ben headed up the sales efforts of the IMG Academy's $4 million/year soccer camp business. Ben has held past positions at the NCAA Office of Government Relations in Washington, DC where he tracked state and federal legislation on Capitol Hill affecting collegiate athletics. Prior to that, Ben spent a summer in Beaverton, OR working at Nike's World Headquarters. At Nike, Ben worked in the North America Soccer division where he was a sports marketer for the Nike signed professionals, the US Men's and Women's National teams, Nike-affiliated collegiate soccer programs, and Nike-affiliated youth soccer clubs. Growing up in Beverly, MA, Ben was an accomplished athlete himself. After being a three sport athlete (soccer, basketball, and tennis) at St. John's Prep in Danvers, MA, Ben went on to play Division 1 college soccer at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, Ben served as a team captain and led the program to win it's first ever Big East regular season championship title in 2010. Following Georgetown, Ben had stints playing semi-professionally with DC United's U23 team and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. After his soccer career, Ben got his Master's of Professional Studies in Sports Management at Georgetown University.

Author archive Author website

September 2, 2016

Uncategorized

Ben_Slingerland

The Business of Sports