SI:AM | One Reason to Watch Each Week Zero Game

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I don’t think there’s any way that the start of the FBS football season tomorrow can live up to the opening night in the FCS last night. Four teams from the sub-Division I level pulled off upsets, including three D-II schools and one NAIA program. Louisiana Christian’s win over Northwestern State was the first win by an NAIA program over a Division I program that offers scholarships.

In today’s SI:AM:
🎾 Tennis’s next superstar
🏈 College football’s best teams ever
⚾ MLB’s best playoff rotations

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Football is back

The college football season starts tomorrow. Sort of. Week Zero is always a strange way to ease into the season before it begins in earnest next weekend. All the marquee matchups are still a week away, but there’s more than 12 hours of honest-to-God competitive football on deck tomorrow. If you need more of a sales pitch than that, here’s one reason to watch each of the eight games.

North Carolina vs. TCU (noon ET on ESPN)

The first game of the day also has the simplest narrative stakes: Either Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels show they’ve got things going in the right direction by pulling off an upset over TCU, or this is yet another opportunity to laugh at how disastrous the legendary NFL coach’s college tenure has been and will apparently continue to be.

I’m betting it’ll be the latter. UNC’s transfer class was ranked 52nd in the nation (and 10th in the ACC) by 247Sports after ranking ninth last season. Now, that talent-deficient roster has to cross an ocean to Ireland and face a TCU team that’s coming off consecutive 9–4 seasons. Good luck, Bill.

San José State at No. 14 USC (3 p.m. ET on NBC)

Speaking of recruiting, Lincoln Riley broke out of a (relative) recruiting slump and landed the No. 1 high school recruiting class in the nation. It’s time to see how some of those highly touted freshmen fare at the next level.

Several true freshmen are poised to be immediate contributors for the Trojans, particularly on offense. Mark Bowman is the projected starter at tight end, and receivers Kayden Dixon-Wyatt, Ethan “Boobie” Feaster and Trent Mosley are expected to see the field right away. Feaster, who only turned 17 three months ago, has been especially buzzworthy in training camp. With the health of projected top receiver Tanook Hines still uncertain, USC’s young wideouts could shine in the opener.

NC State at Virginia (3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN)

Virginia was one of the nation’s most pleasant surprises last season. Now the Cavaliers’ encore begins with a key conference matchup.

Virginia was one win away from a spot in the playoff but lost to Duke in the ACC championship game. It was a disappointing conclusion to a dream season, but the Cavaliers’ 11–3 finish was still their first season with double-digit wins since 1989. Now, a team consisting of a combination of returning veterans and impact transfers will try to run it back.

Jacksonville State at North Dakota State (5:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network)

Sacramento State at Eastern Michigan (6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+)

I’ll combine these two games because the story is the same in each: Both teams are playing their first games as FBS programs.

While the broader narrative is the same, North Dakota State and Sacramento State’s individual situations couldn’t be more different.

NDSU was an FCS powerhouse and is betting that the team that was good enough to win the national championship two years ago and go 12–1 last year will be competitive at the next level. The Bison brought in only seven transfers, three of which were from the sub-Division I level.

Sac State, on the other hand, wasn’t even that good of an FCS program. The Hornets went 7–5 last year and 3–9 the year before. Their first three FCS playoff appearances in school history came between 2019 and ’22 under coach Troy Taylor, who then left for Stanford. That explains why they brought in more than two dozen transfers ahead of their FBS debut.

Hawai’i at Stanford (7 p.m. ET on ACC Network)

Speaking of Northern California football programs that aren’t very good, it’s been a rough few years for the Cardinal, who haven’t won more than four games in a season since 2018. Last year’s team was placed in a difficult position after Taylor was fired in the spring amid allegations of bullying. General manager Andrew Luck brought in his former Colts coach, Frank Reich, to coach the team on an interim basis. He’d never coached in college before. The team went 4–8.

Tomorrow’s game is the start of a new era, though. Stanford has a full-time head coach again in Tavita Pritchard, a former Cardinal quarterback and assistant coach who was most recently the quarterbacks coach for the Commanders. Can he get this program back on track? Saturday will be the first indication.

New Mexico State at Florida State (7 p.m. ET on CW)

Florida State has been the biggest disappointment in college football in the past two years, following up 2023’s undefeated regular season with a nightmarish 2–10 finish the next year and a puzzling 5–7 record last season. A win over Conference USA bottom-feeder New Mexico State won’t tell us much about whether this year will be different, but it’s important for the Seminoles to work out any early-season jitters before a showdown with No. 19 SMU in Week 1.

Memphis at UNLV (10 p.m. ET on Fox)

You might have forgotten just how close UNLV came to reaching the playoff last year. If it has any hope of getting there this time, a win over Memphis is critical.

The Rebels’ 2025 season started inauspiciously with a narrow win over FCS Idaho State, but a strong finish to the year got them a berth in the Mountain West championship game, where they lost to Boise State. With two losses entering conference championship weekend, UNLV would have needed some help to get in, but it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

Boise State’s move to the revamped Pac-12 makes the Group of Five playoff picture muddier, but that’s all the more reason for UNLV to start building a strong résumé in the non-conference period.

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The top five…

… things I saw last night:
5. Braves catcher Drake Baldwin’s home run on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning. Atlanta went on to beat the Dodgers 1–0. Baldwin is the first catcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff homer in a 1–0 victory.
4. Chris Sale’s nasty high fastball to strike out Alex Call for the final out of the Braves’ win. It was Sale’s first complete game since 2019 and the fourth shutout of his career.
3. Linebacker Charlie Johnson’s interception to seal Division II South Dakota Mines’s upset win over FCS Drake. The underdogs blew a 31–13 lead, allowing 22 points in the fourth quarter, but scored a late touchdown to get back on top before Johnson’s pick ended it.
2. Cardinals prospect Tai Peete’s bat flip after demolishing a ball for his second homer of the night.
1. Division II Ohio Dominican’s unbelievably chaotic upset over FCS Morehead State. This two-minute highlight reel is as action-packed as you’ll ever see. It starts with a touchdown to give Ohio Dominican a 34–12 lead. Then, Morehead State throws an apparent game-sealing interception with four minutes left in regulation, only for Ohio Dominican to fumble the ball on the return. Morehead State scored twice in the final three minutes to force overtime. Ohio Dominican scored a touchdown on a fourth-and-12 in the second OT, then scored in the third OT and got a stop on defense to win it.

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