College football season draws near, and it’s looking like there will again be big crowds—big crowds of which you can be a part.
In celebration, or preparation, or at the very least contentization, we’ve pulled together the best college football travel schedule we could for the months ahead. Let’s begin.
Saturday, August 28th: Nebraska at Illinois; Champaign, IL
Not a lot of great options this weekend, but Champaign’s fun, it’s a Big Ten conference game, and Bret Bielema vs. Scott Frost is a rich Week Zero day in terms of primary characters.
Thursday, September 2nd: Boise State at UCF; Orlando, FL
There’s a Wednesday night game this week, but it’s in Montgomery, from which it’d be kind of hard to get to Orlando with time to enjoy the scene before this clash between the two most prominent mid-major programs of the last 25 years.
Will it impact the playoff? No, and not even because of the seeming impossibility for Group of Five teams to make it. Boise State and UCF just aren’t expected to be that good. Will it be a fun one? Yeah, it should be fun.
Saturday, September 4th: Georgia vs. Clemson; Charlotte, NC
This might not end up being that rare in hindsight. Plenty of possible contenders play a real contender on the opening weekend, get smacked, then limp to an 8-4 finish.
But it also might end up being rare. Each team could compete for a playoff berth, and if Clemson loses this one, there’s going to be a real possibility of the ACC missing the field altogether.
Monday, September 6th: Louisville vs. Mississippi; Atlanta, GA
If you want to break your back, you can get to Tallahassee Sunday night for the Notre Dame/Florida State game, but I’d pass on that and watch it in a hotel bar. The bigger show will be Matt Corral on Monday night against a questionable defense as he kicks off his Heisman campaign.
Is Corral the favorite? No. But he’s enough of a factor, playing in a fun enough system, that this could be a show.
Saturday, September 11th: Oregon at Ohio State; Columbus, OH
This is an early game (FOX hates tailgating), but the benefit of that is that you can post up at a bar afterwards and judge how soft Ohio State fans have gotten by seeing whether or not they cheer for Washington to beat Michigan.
Saturday, September 18th: Alabama at Florida; Gainesville, FL
It’s probably the toughest game on Alabama’s schedule—a visit to the Swamp, where while the Gators probably aren’t great, they are good, and the Tide have enough turnover and a tough enough early slate to make this interesting. If nothing else, the Swamp should be hot and loud.
Saturday, September 25th: Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame; Chicago, IL
FOX has mandated another early start here, but the upshot of that is that you’ll be in Chicago on a fall Saturday at the apex of America’s sporting season. Hard to think of a better place to be.
Saturday, October 2nd: Cincinnati @ Notre Dame; South Bend, IN
There are two main options here, and I’m choosing against Arizona State/UCLA because we don’t know what the Pac-12 South will hold and that could be a bowl-eligibility fight when we look at it in hindsight.
If you don’t want Notre Dame back to back, perhaps this will persuade you: If you don’t want that because you don’t like Notre Dame, you could be seeing the Irish lose twice in a row, or at least having their spirit crushed once. On the flip side, if they don’t lose these games, you’re seeing two straight weeks with big ol’ playoff implications. Also, objectively speaking, South Bend is a fun place on an October Saturday.
Thursday, October 7th: Houston @ Tulane; New Orleans, LA
We’ve been holding off on weeknight games for the most part due to travel difficulties and underwhelming slates, but this is a good combination of possibly-fun and in-New-Orleans-so-definitely-fun. Also, not too long a drive from the next stop.
Saturday, October 9th: Alabama @ Texas A&M; College Station, TX
Going back to people who might annoy you, Texas A&M might well be 5-0 going into this one, and if you thought their fanbase’s unreasonable playoff expectations were noisy last year, wait ‘til you hear them when they think they can beat Alabama.
Of course, they might be right: They might be able to beat Bama. We don’t know. If they do, you’ll want to be there. If they don’t, you’ll still be getting to see a loud one and a display of athletic feats only the Crimson Tide routinely pull off. Don’t hope for A&M fans to get shut up, though. That’s a longshot no matter the score.
Tuesday, October 12th: Appalachian State @ Louisiana-Lafayette; Lafayette, LA
If Louisiana-Lafayette beats Texas on Labor Day weekend while you’re in Charlotte, they’ll have a solid shot at going undefeated. Neither of those things is impossible, and if the former comes to pass, this should be a big night in Louisiana, where big nights are big.
Thursday, October 14th: Navy @ Memphis; Memphis, TN
From there, well, since you’re in the Mississippi Valley already, might as well support our troops.
Saturday, October 16th: Miami @ UNC; Chapel Hill, NC
From Memphis, you can stop in the Smokeys on your way through (actually, this is a deceptively long drive, so if you need to fly, no hate), but whether you do that or not, this looks, at the moment, like the best place to be on October 16th. UNC could still be undefeated at this point. Miami could only have a loss to Alabama on the résumé. Each is a potential foil to Clemson, and this could be a de facto Coastal championship game, making it matter for the playoff in a variety of scenarios.
Wednesday, October 20th: Coastal Carolina @ Appalachian State; Boone, NC
Boone’s supposed to be beautiful, and we’re guessing that if you’ve made it this far, you don’t have a job, so might as well enjoy another weeknight with the Fun Belt. Maybe Coastal Carolina will be doing the mullet thing again.
Saturday, October 23rd: Ohio State @ Indiana; Bloomington, IN
USC goes to South Bend this weekend, and there’s a chance Oregon/UCLA is huge in LA, but even if Indiana’s mediocre this year (and I would guess they’ll be at least decent), this should be a chaos factory, with the added bonus that last year’s madness will make no Buckeye lead feel safe.
Saturday, October 30th: Georgia vs. Florida; Jacksonville, FL
Again, a possibly consequential Notre Dame game opposite this (those guys could either be complete non-factors or at the center of the narrative week after week, which I guess is kind of just a facet of their independence), and again, the Pac-12 could provide something, and Iowa/Wisconsin could prove important (Iowa’s Big Ten schedule is extraordinarily light this year), but very reasonable to hope the winner of this one will play Alabama in the SEC title game with only one prior loss to their name, and that’s something worth going to Jacksonville for.
Saturday, November 6th: Oregon at Washington; Seattle, WA
I hope this is a huge game. I want that for the Pac-12. I want that for these two currently-underappreciated football schools. I think because the Pac-12 hasn’t been a factor for so long, we forget how normal of colleges these two are. When I think of quintessential college experiences, I rarely think of anyone on the West Coast, but both of these fit the bill in some category. So: It should be fun, and it could be huge.
Tuesday, November 9th: Akron at Western Michigan; Kalamazoo, MI
Ok, this week doesn’t have anything too apparently great right now on Saturday, so let’s hit another avenue in FBS football. Let’s pillage the Rust Belt, starting with the ugliest MACtion game we can find on Tuesday night…
Wednesday, November 10th: Toledo at Bowling Green; Bowling Green, OH
…continuing with the ugliest MACtion game we can find on Wednesday night…
Thursday, November 11th: UNC at Pitt; Pittsburgh, PA
…continuing through a drag-‘em-into-the-muck night in Pittsburgh…
Saturday, November 13th: Northwestern at Wisconsin; Madison, WI
…and finishing with a Northwestern game that seems destined to wholly frustrate a potentially hopeful Badger fanbase.
A little bit for everyone on this itinerary.
Saturday, November 20th: Iowa State at Oklahoma; Norman, OK
This is our first Big 12 game, though depending how that Texas/ULL game goes in September, you could always sub in the Red River Shootout for Alabama/A&M.
The script in the Big 12 this year is that Iowa State will be Oklahoma’s primary challenger again, and while I’m too nervous to say anything about that confidently, if you’re picking a game right now, this is the one for that week. Oklahoma can and will make more College Football Playoffs, too, and with few clear challengers beyond Iowa State, this could be an undefeated team checking off boxes on their way to an uncertain fate against the big boys.
Thursday, November 25th: Mississippi at Mississippi State; Starkville, MS
There isn’t a great Thursday/Friday combo this week, so if you want to spend Thanksgiving watching college football, the Egg Bowl’s always a good bet. Might not be great football, but has consistently been great entertainment of late, and you have plenty of great football on this list (outside of Rust Belt Week, of course).
Saturday, November 27th: Oklahoma at Oklahoma State; Stillwater, OK
Of all the games where someone might put up a fight in the regular season’s final week, this seems the most promising.
Saturday, December 4th: SEC Championship; Atlanta, GA
Of all the conference championships, this is your best bet to see 1) a good game and 2) a game of playoff consequence.
Saturday, December 11th: Army vs. Navy; East Rutherford, NJ
Having never been, I don’t think I’m qualified to call this a bucket list experience, but I do trust that it’s a cool thing to see, and, well, there aren’t any other FBS games this weekend, so unless you want to keep this open for the FCS…second round? Quarterfinals?
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Mix and match, sub in as you see fit. But if you want to buy your tickets now, and you want to go to exactly 26 college football games this fall…these are your 26. Apologies to the Mountain West and the Pac-12 for underrepresentation, but you guys are too uncertain for my blood. Happy to change plans if need be.
