College football TV schedule: Ohio State-Notre Dame is a tasty opener
After learning that Nebraska is Not Back in Week 0, college football gets going in full with a Week 1 smorgasbord. Here’s the bounty we’re looking at.
North Carolina State begins perhaps the most anticipated season in program history with a road game at East Carolina. The Wolfpack has matched its highest Associated Press preseason ranking (13th), but the past four times it earned a spot in the preseason poll — 2003, 1993, 1989 and 1975 — it finished the season unranked. Such is the life for a perpetually middling program that has exceeded nine wins once (2002) in its 122-year history, but this year there are obvious causes for optimism: Quarterback Devin Leary threw for 3,433 yards, 35 touchdowns and only five interceptions, while a strong defense from 2021 returns 13 of the 15 players who played at least 250 snaps. The Pirates, who last season posted their first winning record since 2014, would love nothing more than to play early-season, in-state spoiler. … Speaking of ACC teams playing early-season, in-state road games, North Carolina travels to Appalachian State in perhaps the most anticipated regular season game ever for the hosts. The Mountaineers actually are small favorites to win (as of this writing), so an Appalachian State victory would be magnitudes less seismic than its upset of Michigan in 2007 (the Tar Heels also are 5-10 in road games over the past three seasons). Still, the largest crowd in Kidd Brewer Stadium history is expected. …
