The offseason is behind us. We have passed through the barren wilderness wasteland, and before us stretches the verdant Field Turf plain of lush college football goodness. Each week in this space, I’ll keep tabs on 2014 Notre Dame opponents, their strength-of-schedule, and who they’re playing. For those of who want to scout future opponents, or who just can’t get enough college football, I’ll take my best guess as to what you should watch when you’re not watching Notre Dame Football.
Who To Watch
Florida State at Oklahoma State (Sat 8:00pm ET ABC)
Or you could just watch this. Noon on Saturday. (Courtesy Land-Grant Holy Land)
Hopefully you will have sufficient time to gorge yourself on the luscious first weekend of games — Arizona State plays tonight (Thursday), Syracuse plays on Friday (although you might want to skip that), and Louisville plays Miami on Monday. Just a delicious first weekend. Check the full opponent slate below.
But if you can only make time for one game, here’s my first week’s nomination: following what we all hope is a comfortable ND victory, your primetime (minus Brent Musberger) matchup is the defending national champion Florida State Seminoles vs. Oklahoma State. While this is a neutral-site game in the Jerry Dome, kudos to FSU for not playing a paddy-cake game.
Strength-of-Schedule Rankings
Jeff Sagarin doesn’t issue a preseason strength-of-schedule ranking, so I’ve used the Sagarin final 2013 ranking and Phil Steele’s 2014 preseason rank for this week.
Rank |
Team |
Record |
Weekly Change |
| 1 | Notre Dame | 0-0 | -29 |
| 16 | Stanford | 0-0 | +15 |
| 17 | Southern Cal | 0-0 | -4 |
| 21 | Syracuse | 0-0 | -36 |
| 25 | Arizona State | 0-0 | +23 |
| 27 | North Carolina | 0-0 | -34 |
| 43 | Purdue | 0-0 | +16 |
| 45 | Northwestern | 0-0 | — |
| 46 | Florida State | 0-0 | -16 |
| 53 | Michigan | 0-0 | +13 |
| 68 | Louisville | 0-0 | -35 |
| 83 | Rice | 0-0 | -15 |
| 108 | Navy | 0-0 | +27 |
Upcoming Opponents
Weber State at Arizona State (Thu 10:30pm ET Pac-12 Network)
Villanova at Syracuse (Fri 7:30pm ET)
Western Michigan at Purdue (Sat 12:00pm ET ESPNU)
Ohio State at Navy (Sat 12:00pm ET CBS Sports Network)
Appalachian State at Michigan (Sat 12:00pm ET ESPN2)
California at Northwestern (Sat 3:30pm ET ABC Regional)
UC-Davis at Stanford (Sat 4:00pm ET Pac-12 Network)
Liberty at North Carolina (Sat 6:00pm ET)
Fresno State at USC (Sat 7:30pm ET Fox)
Miami at Louisville (Mon 8:00pm ESPN)
Powered by SC schadenfreude, husband to Mrs. IrishElvis (not pictured), rabble rouser. TCB.
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