5 College Football Games Fans Won’t Want to Miss in 2024

The 2024 college football season, which kicks off Aug. 24 with a short slate of Week Zero games, will transform the sport forever.

The biggest wave of conference realignment yet took effect this summer, headlined by the moves of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington to the Big Ten . Meantime, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah joined the Big 12, and Cal and Stanford joined the ACC.

At long last, the sport’s postseason has expanded. A decade after college football finally swapped the BCS for the College Football Playoff, the tournament expands from four teams to 12 , keeping national title hopes alive for a significant number of teams well into November.

With more Playoff spots up for grabs and an exciting new conference landscape, here are five matchups every college football fan should mark on the calendar.

Texas Longhorns at Michigan Wolverines — Sept. 7 (Week 2)

Texas and Michigan are two of the most storied programs in all of college football, and yet the two sides only have faced off once on the gridiron. That makes this Week 2 matchup, amazingly, the first regular-season bout between these two heavyweights, with the defending national champions playing host at The Big House. The Wolverines will return the trip by playing in Austin next year.

Texas, the preseason No. 4 team in the country , enters this season as a favorite for the national championship, led by Heisman candidate and Athlon preseason All-American Quinn Ewers at quarterback.

While Michigan is expected to regress after losing Jim Harbaugh and much of offense the from last season’s squad, the Wolverines should be in the mix for a spot in the 12-team Playoff field . The defense, now helmed by longtime NFL assistant Wink Martindale, brings back some of the star power from the national championship team. All-America defensive tackle Mason Graham and cornerback Will Johnson headline that side of the ball for the reigning national champs.

The hype leading up to this game will be palpable. ESPN’s “College GameDay” and Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” pregame shows almost certainly will be on location in Ann Arbor. Kickoff is scheduled for shortly after noon ET on Fox.

Colorado Buffaloes at Nebraska Cornhuskers — Sept. 7 (Week 2)

Colorado blew out Nebraska in Week 2 last year , 36-14. Already coming off a stunning upset of 2022 national runner-up TCU, the win over Nebraska helped launch the hype for Deion Sanders’ program to a new level.

Nebraska quietly improved as the year went on and enters year two under Matt Rhule with a fair bit of hype of its own. The offense adds several new weapons around blue chip freshman Dylan Raiola , the presumptive starting quarterback. The defense, which impressed a year ago, retained a number of key pieces, including coordinator Tony White, whose stock as a future head coach continues to rise.

Colorado remains one of the sport’s most compelling teams, as Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter seek to lead the Buffaloes to a winning season and cement themselves as top-tier NFL Draft prospects. The Buffs have overhauled their offensive line in hopes of keeping Shedeur, who was sacked more than any other QB in college football (52 times) a year ago, upright. Whether they can keep Sanders clean against White’s defense will play a significant factor in this game.

Both teams face pressure to break through as bowl teams in 2024, and this regional rivalry could set the tone for the Buffs’ and Huskers’ seasons. The telecast is on NBC at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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Georgia Bulldogs at Alabama Crimson Tide — Sept. 28 (Week 5)

Alabama-Georgia games have taken on extra significance in recent years, as Kirby Smart took over at his alma mater after working under Nick Saban with the Crimson Tide, ultimately building the Bulldogs program into the Crimson Tide’s dynastic rival.

The two SEC powers have become regular postseason foils, but they’ve only played one regular-season game since Smart took over at Georgia in 2016. With the SEC doing away with divisions, effective this year, we should see more frequent on-campus games between these two, which is an exciting prospect.

This year’s matchup has plenty of juice, as both programs are favorites to reach the College Football Playoff. The game features a matchup of arguably the two best quarterbacks in the league in Georgia’s Carson Beck and Jalen Milroe, who looks to progress under new head coach Kalen DeBoer. The former Washington coach built one of the sport’s most explosive offenses around Michael Penix Jr., a much different player than the dual-threat Milroe. This midseason test against the Bulldogs defense will be telling for how both Milroe and DeBoer are adapting to the partnership.

This will also serve as the first SEC game of DeBoer’s Alabama tenure , quite a way to welcome the former Washington coach to the conference. This showdown is slated for a 7:30 p.m. ET kick on ABC.

Ohio State Buckeyes at Oregon Ducks — Oct. 12 (Week 7)

Oregon enters the Big Ten as an immediate College Football Playoff contender, and the first year of the new-look conference gives us a potential postseason preview in mid-October with Ohio State making its first trip to Eugene since 1967.

The two sides faced off in Columbus in 2021, two years before anyone knew Oregon would be joining the Buckeyes as conference foes.

With the new 12-team Playoff, the Big Ten could reasonably find four teams playing for a national title this year. The Buckeyes and Ducks enter the year as the league’s top tier. Oregon brings in seventh-year quarterback Dillon Gabriel, a Heisman contender, to run the offense, while Ohio State fields perhaps the most talented roster in college football. Ohio State is ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25, with Oregon sliding right in behind the Buckeyes at No. 3.

This game also could present an interesting clash of styles. Expect Oregon to throw the ball plenty behind Gabriel, while Ohio State’s offense, now helmed by former Ducks coach Chip Kelly, features two of the best running backs in the nation in TreVeyon Henderson and Ole Miss transfer Quinshod Judkins, as well as a dual-threat QB in Kansas State transfer Will Howard .

Texas Longhorns at Texas A&M Aggies — Nov. 30 (Week 14)

With the 2024 additions of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, commissioner Greg Sankey proudly proclaimed his league is the one that has “restored historic rivalries” through expansion. The prime example is the intrastate battle between Texas and Texas A&M, a heated rivalry that has been off the schedule since A&M’s defection from the Big 12 in 2012.

Both programs have been on parallel quests for national relevance since their breakup. Texas broke through last season, with head coach Steve Sarkisian reaching the College Football Playoff in his third season with the Longhorns. Texas A&M has tabbed Mike Elko — a former Aggies DC and successful head coach at Duke — as its new head coach entering this new iteration of the SEC. While expectations for the Aggies feel more realistic than they were after Jimbo Fisher was hired away from Florida State, Aggies fans aren’t likely to embrace a lengthy rebuild. The program isn’t without talent, either, and it enters the season at No. 20 in the AP poll.

An upset of the Playoff-minded Longhorns would go a long way for Elko’s reputation in College Station. The atmosphere for this regular-season closer at Kyle Field should be electric, especially if Texas remains in the Playoff hunt and A&M is competitive throughout the SEC slate.

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