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The No. 17 Iowa Hawkeyes had their best season ever under Kirk Ferentz in 2015 and were within a breath of winning the Big Ten and getting to the College Football Playoff. The Hawkeyes lose a lot from last year’s stellar team, but return CJ Beathard and his top target Matt VandeBerg. Their opponent in College Football Week 1 will be a Miami Redhawks team that is one of the worst in the MAC, registering just one winning season over the past 10 years.The contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Saturday, September 3, 2016, at 3:30 p.m. ET at Kinnick Stadium. This game will be broadcast on ESPNU.... 

If the No. 13 Houston Cougars want to make the College Football Playoff, their road starts against the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners. Although this game takes place in the city of Houston, it will be in the Texans’ stadium and thus have plenty of Sooners fans down from Norman. There’s no doubt that this is one of the premier games of College Football Week 1 and it’s a pseudo-elimination game for both teams in all likelihood as a Sooners loss will make it very difficult for them to get back to the playoff.... 

The Tulsa Golden Hurricane may finally be righting the ship. Following five wins between 2013-14, Tulsa made a change and brought in Philip Montgomery to run the show. Things immediately improved and Montgomery had Tulsa’s offense rolling once again. Now Tulsa will look to tally its first winning season since 2012 and will start the season with the San Jose Spartans on deck for College Football Week 1 action. Any game involving Tulsa has the potential for a lot of points and this one is no exception.The contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Saturday, September 3, 2016, at 7 p.m. ET at Skelly Field at HA Chapman Stadium. This game will be broadcast on the CBSSN.... 

This is one of the best slates of football ever for the opening week of college football season. There are premier games on every day of the week from Thursday to Labor Day and lots of opportunities to get your palette wet betting on football again. Whether you want to bet on your favorite team or a matchup between highly ranked teams, Week 1 College Football can fit any of your needs.... 

All Frank Solich does is win games. Since Solich took over the Ohio Bobcats he has restored a once proud program and has only had one losing season in the past decade of football. Ohio has been helped by being in the easier part of the MAC, but this team just plays sound football. While Ohio has made a habit of going to bowls, the Texas State Bobcats will be trying to get to their first one and a win against Ohio in College Football Week 1 would go a long way to getting them to that goal.... 

There are a lot of experts that believe this is the year the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines return to glory. Michigan has one of the easiest schedules in the country and doesn’t have to go on the road until October 8, playing its first five games in lovely Ann Arbor. That will give the Wolverines plenty of time to find the one thing they are missing if they want to make a run at a title, a quarterback. They will kick off their season in College Football Week 1 against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors.... 

Row, row, row. The Western Michigan Broncos are one of the most fun college football teams in the nation under head coach PJ Fleck. Fleck has brought new life into a moribund program since taking over at the start of 2013 and with one more good season will likely be coaching a power conference program next season. He’s come close to leading his team to victories over Big Ten opponents and will look to get his first win against one when the Broncos face the Northwestern Wildcats in College Football Week 1 action.... 

College football continues its mission to find audiences across the globe in the first game on Saturday of College Football Week 1. For the second time in three seasons, Dublin, Ireland will host a game. Two seasons ago, it was a back-and-forth affair between Penn State and UCF. This season, it will be a defensive slugfest as the Boston College Eagles take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Winning this game will be crucial to both teams’ chances of making a bowl this season.... 

The Boise State Broncos have proven over the years that they are willing to travel anywhere and everywhere. That barnstorming mentality has served the team well and helped Boise to establish itself as the best mid-major team in college football over the last decade. When the Broncos travel to take on the UL Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns in College Football Week 1 it will be about more than just football though. The Ragin’ Cajuns will also be playing for a city that has been ravaged by flooding over the past month.... 

The LSU Tigers won their first seven games of last season to find themselves in the College Football Playoff mix, but three straight ugly defeats put an end to their national title dreams quickly. They gave up an average of 33 points per game in those defeats, so defensive coordinator Dave Aranda was brought in to shore the unit up. He’ll look to bottle his former team up – the Wisconsin Badgers – Saturday afternoon when these squads collide in the land of cheese.... 

The Tar Heels return most of their starters from last year’s team that went 11-3 but they will have a new quarterback as Mitch Trubisky replaces Marquise Williams. On the other side, the expectation level is sky high at Georgia as Kirby Smart takes over as head coach with Mark Richt now in Miami. The Bulldogs have a new quarterback in true freshman Jacob Eason and they have a star running back in Nick Chubb.... 

There’s no doubt what the premier game of Friday night is. The Stanford Cardinal have been one of the best teams in college football this decade with a 66-15 record. This may be the most vulnerable Stanford team we’ve seen yet though. Aside from Christian McCaffrey, this side doesn’t return much talent in 2016 and will have an extremely inexperienced quarterback at the helm. Bill Snyder and the Kansas State Wildcats will certainly give them a game in Week 1 of college football.This matchup in Week 1 of the regular season will take place on Friday, September 2, 2016,at 9 p.m. ET at Stanford Stadium on FS1.... 

Will this be the year that the Colorado Buffaloes finally shake off the last decade of losing seasons and return to a bowl? There’s a lot of optimism in Boulder with 18 returning starters and confidence that Mike MacIntyre might be the person to turn this thing around. A nine-game conference schedule leaves the Buffaloes no room for error though and they must get at least two wins in non-conference play to be playing in December. That makes their matchup against the Colorado State Rams in College Football Week 1 crucial to their chances.This matchup in Week 1 of the regular season will take place on Friday, September 2, 2016,at 8 p.m. ET at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on ESPN.... 

Points should hit the board in earnest when the Toledo Rockets travel to Jonesboro to take on the Arkansas State Red Wolves in College Football Week 1 action on Friday. These two Group of Five schools were two of the best and most exciting to follow last season. The two combined to average 76 points per game in 2015 and moved the ball at will against most of their conference foes. To add intrigue to this matchup, Arkansas State will be looking for a bit of revenge after getting shellacked in the Glass Bowl by 30 points last season.This matchup in Week 1 of the regular season will take place on Friday, September 2, 2016, at 9 p.m. ET at Centennial Bank Stadium on ESPNU.... 

This matchup in Week 1 of the regular season will take place on Friday, September 2, 2016, at 7 p.m. ET at Lincoln Financial Field on CBS Sports Network.... 

The Georgia State Panthers have improved steadily over the past three years, improving from one win its first two years of college football to bowl eligibility in 2015. Georgia State has a promising young core on defense and a solid coach. The Panthers will look to begin this season on a high note by knocking off the Ball State Cardinals in Week 1 of the college football season. Ball State went 3-9 last season and while there is room for optimism, a bowl game could be tough to grasp. Georgia State was given a measure of respect as it is the favored team in this matchup.... 

The Louisville Cardinals have a bunch of key returning starters back in the fold and are expected to get off to a quick start in Week 1 against the Charlotte 49ers. They are ranked No. 19 in the nation to begin the year and would love to start climbing up in the polls. Charlotte lost 10 straight games to end last season and the hopes aren’t much higher this year. This seems like a lopsided matchup in terms of talent, and the betting spread certainly reflects it. Louisville is a huge favorite to start quickly and blow out the 49ers in NCAA football wagering.This contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Thursday, September 1, 2016, at 7 p.m. ET at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.... 

A pair of offensively-challenged three-win teams from a season ago will face off to open up the regular season, but one of them is the clear favorite. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will host the Tulane Green Wave in Week 1 of the college football season and enter as better than two touchdown favorites to start the season off on the right foot. Wake Forest has many key pieces back on an offense which hopes to begin making positive strides in NCAA football gambling.Watch this regular season Week 1 matchup live on Thursday, September 1, 2016, at 6 p.m. ET at Groves Stadium - Winston Salem.... 

Gary Andersen has to be questioning his decision to become the head coach of the Oregon State Beavers. Andersen had a cushy job in Madison, winning eight to ten games a season and seemingly had a firm grip on that job. However, his continued clashes with AD Barry Alvarez led him to jump ship to join Oregon State, one of the toughest programs to win at in the PAC-12. Andersen now must try to improve upon a two-win debut season in Corvallis and would love a strong showing against the Minnesota Gol... 

Very few teams can match the offensive fireworks that we’ve come to expect from the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers under Jeff Brohm. Even though the all-time leading passer in school history is gone, the Hilltoppers are expected to just reload with Mike White, a transfer from USF. WKU will get an early chance to see just how good its offense should be this season with a Week 1 test against the Rice Owls, a team that it obliterated 49-10 last season.... 

The South Carolina Gamecocks are used to being one of the first teams to play to kick off the new season. It’s been pretty successful for the Gamecocks too. South Carolina is 4-1 in its season openers since shifting its games to Thursday to be one of the premier games of Week 1 of the college football season. This season, the Gamecocks will start off with the Vanderbilt Commodores, the one SEC foe that South Carolina was able to defeat in 2015.... 

Nine years ago to the day, the Appalachian State Mountaineers put the college football world on its ear by traveling to the Big House and knocking off the No. 5 Michigan Wolverines. App State ended up using that win as a springboard to make the jump from the FCS to the FBS and after a bumpy transition is now back to its winning ways. The season opener in Week 1 of the college football season against the Tennessee Volunteers will be an important gauge to see just how far this team has come in a short time.This contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Thursday, September 1, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. ET at Neyland Stadium on SEC Network.... 

Can the Indiana Hoosiers make back-to-back bowl appearances for the first time in a quarter century? That’s just what Kevin Wilson will try to do after breaking Indiana’s eight-year long bowl drought. Indiana will start the march towards six wins with a winnable game in talent rich South Florida against the Florida International Golden Panthers. This Week 1 match-up will be a rematch of the most heartbreaking game for FIU in 2015, when it came within a fourth and goal conversion of knocking off the Hoosiers.This contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Thursday, September 1, 2016, at 7:30 p.m. ET at Ocean Bank Field at FIU Stadium on ESPNU.... 

College football is going global to kick off the 2016 campaign! For the first time ever, two teams will travel to Sydney, Australia to play a game and provide college football fans with an early morsel before Week 1 of the season kicks off in earnest. The California Golden Bears and Hawaii Rainbow Warriors will play just the third college football game ever, and the first in almost three decades, in Australia this Friday in what should be a high scoring affair.This contest in Week 1 of the regular season will go down Friday, August 26, 2016, at 10 p.m. ET at ANZ Stadium on ESPN.... 

The Ohio State-Wisconsin game doesn’t resonate as one of the bigger matchups in the Big Ten, mainly because the Buckeyes have games annually with Michigan and have dominated the series. And being on opposite sides of the divisional alignment, the two do not face each other every year. So, after a two-year respite from Big Ten play, the Badgers and Buckeyes will go at it in Madison on October 15. Wisconsin will welcome the chance to avenge a 59-0 loss in the 2014 Big Ten Championship....