College Football Week 1: Picks, Sneaky Games & Parachuting into 2026

College football’s first full weekend is finally here, and Week 1 is throwing a whole lot of unknowns directly into the fire. We make our picks for the biggest games on the schedule and try to figure out which teams are actually ready for the moment across five days of games from Thursday night through Labor Day.

How quickly can new quarterbacks and new coaches settle in? Can Clemson’s offense find enough answers in Death Valley? What should we expect from Auburn and Baylor in Atlanta, Louisville and Ole Miss in Nashville, and Wisconsin and Notre Dame at Lambeau Field? We also dig into SMU-Florida State, UCLA-Cal, Boise State-Oregon and several other games where one matchup could tell us much more about these teams than the final score.

Then we go hunting for the games hiding beneath the radar, identify our Window of Opportunity, make our locks and upset picks, and prepare to leap into the great unknown of our 19th season of college football podcasting.

TImecodes:

LSU-Clemson - 9:03
Baylor-Auburn - 17:19
Oregon-Boise State - 23:36
Louisville-Ole Miss - 32:07
Wisconsin-Notre Dame - 37:48
SMU-Florida State - 45:07

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