The college football appetizer came last week, with a surprisingly entertaining palate-opener of Week 0 games. Now, the main course begins.
And does it ever. Labor Day weekend ushers in the 2026 College Football season with five consecutive days of college football, beginning Thursday and culminating Monday night when No. 18 SMU visits Florida State, home of the hottest coaching seat in college football. Yes, we’re talking about you, FSU coach Mike Norvell.
The seats were sizzling for many coaches last year. A record 15 coaches were relieved of their duties during the 2025 season. Riding a very expensive shotgun with that number was a combined buyout total of approximately $228 million.
Let’s put that into context. That’s nearly a quarter billion dollars of payouts to coaches not to coach at their now-former employer. Here’s your money, now please go away.
The music stopped before the season did last year. And the musical chairs weren’t limited to the players or the usual post-season coaching shuffle, although we saw plenty of both. So you’ll excuse us if we drop names you may be familiar with in unfamiliar locales.
Such is the state of college football in the mid ‘20s.
But with that, we still have games to handicap and value-meeting opportunities to find on this tasty smorgasbord of college football.
Last year: 33-29—53.2%
Follow the Cardinals Rule
Welcome to the first ranked v. ranked game of the season, one of the more intriguing games on the Week 1 slate: a Sunday night clash between No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 24 Louisville, brought to you from a neutral site in Nashville.
The storylines insist upon themselves (to borrow a line from “Family Guy”). You’ve got the post-Lane Kiffin Rebels and their Air Raid offense that averaged 36.1 points and nearly 490 yards of offense last year. QB Trinidad Chambliss is back at the controls, hoping to remind everyone that despite not starting the season, he did lead Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff semifinals last season. This, along with the return of RB Kewan Lacy, explains the Rebels’ lofty preseason ranking.
Meanwhile, Louisville introduces us to its latest QB model: Lincoln Kienholz. The Ohio State transfer was actually a higher-rated prospect than Chambliss last year and brings mobility and stability to the Cardinals’ revolving door at that position.
There’s more to like about Louisville. Under head coach Jeff Brohm, the Cardinals always manage to play up to the level of their competition. They can lose to a middling Cal team one week, then beat Miami—a CFP finalist, in case you forgot—shortly thereafter. Last year, Louisville converted 90.5 percent of their red-zone trips, racked up a plus-2 turnover ratio and garnered 64 sacks.
We’re taking a wait-and-see approach to Ole Miss and its lofty ranking. That means we’re taking the points with a Louisville team that isn’t as outmatched as it looks.
Best Bet: Louisville +7 (-115 at BetMGM)
Domer Dominance Means Badger Bleeding
Cranky, bitter, and feral. That’s where we left Notre Dame last season, the first team left out of the 12-team playoff. And why did the Fighting Irish turn into the wrong-side-of-the-bubble Crying Irish?
Because of a Week 1 loss to Miami, which took the spot on the right side of the bubble and ran with it all the way to the CFP final. Add a following-week loss to Texas A&M, and you see how the committee conveniently forgot the Irish ran the table from there.
Given that, and given the ridiculous arsenal of talent at Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman’s disposal: QB CJ Carr and WRs Jordan Faison and Jaden Greathouse are back on offense, and a crazy-deep defense with four preseason All-Americans in LBs Drayk Bowen, Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa, CB Leonard Moore, and S Brauntae Johnson, the No. 4 Irish are deep, talented, and, yes, feral.
Notre Dame is so deep that it can lose two RBs in the first round of the NFL draft: Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price, yet bring you Aneyas Williams, who has scored seven TDs in just 58 career touches.
All this gets unleashed on a Wisconsin team that—after a 2-7 Big Ten campaign last season—is trying to cool down the seat underneath head coach Luke Fickell. The Badgers were last in the country in 2025 with only six takeaways; their once meat-grinder running game that brought you Brent Moss, Ron Dayne, and Jonathan Taylor averaged just 116.7 yards per game last season and 3.3 yards per carry.
This game is at Lambeau Field. Don’t expect the Badgers—even with their iconic “Jump Around” ritual entering the fourth quarter—to do much leaping.
Best Bet: Notre Dame -20.5 (-110 at BetMGM)
Can Trojans Stop Horsing Around?
The heat is on a beleaguered USC program for more than underachieving last week. Social media was littered with photos of a nearly empty Coliseum for the Trojans’ season opener against San Jose State.
A soaring Southern California heat wave and an unranked opponent made for a tough draw at the sun-exposed Coliseum, especially with students still away for the summer. Even so, critics didn’t miss the opportunity to question the loyalty of the USC faithful.
After giving up 23 fourth-quarter points in a 42-26 victory over San Jose State, USC gets another gritty state school this week: Fresno State, which now finds itself in the Trojans’ old Pac-12 digs.
This looks like the ultimate trap game for the Trojans. Yes, they had a “tune-up” last week, when they went to sleep with a 35-3 third-quarter lead. Yes, USC is 8-0 SU and 6-2 ATS against Group of 6 teams under Lincoln Riley (another hot-seat denizen).
But the Bulldogs are far more talented than most people realize, and giving a well-coached team that finished second among FBS teams in passing yards allowed last year 22 points is too hot a bet to stomach here.
Best Bet: Fresno State +22 (-110 at BetMGM)
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