Week 3 college football TV schedule and open thread

Another Saturday, another day of glorious college football.

Welcome to week three folks. SEC play starts today for several teams - including our beloved Florida Gators - and there is also one ranked prime-time match-up and some other interesting pairings on deck today.

After a week off due to Hurricane Irma, Florida finally returns home to The Swamp today and will face the Tennessee Volunteers in their home opener. That game will air at 3:30 p.m. on CBS. I mentioned in last week’s open thread the impact that that storm had on the college football landscape, and it continues over into this week.

Despite some earlier concerns, the Gators are keeping their date with the Vols, but not all teams fared so well. Miami and Florida State have postponed their meeting, scheduled for this weekend, until October 7. That means for the second week in a row neither the ‘Canes nor the ‘Noles will take the field. Florida International and UCF both ended up cancelling their games for this week, against Indiana and Georgia Tech, respectively.

I know a great many Gator fans were concerned about Florida’s inability to play last week, but it could have been much worse - both from a football standpoint, and much more importantly, from a humanitarian standpoint. Many communities in Florida, and in the Caribbean, were dramatically affected by Hurricane Irma. If you would like to donate to help with disaster relief and recovery, this post has some good links to start.

Feel free to hang out in this thread while watching any of today’s games, before and after the Gators play.

Here are our picks for today’s viewing windows:

Early (12:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Eastern)

Oklahoma State at Pittsburgh (12:00 p.m., ESPN): The only other meeting to ever occur between these two schools happened last season, in a 45-38 shootout OSU win in Stillwater. This season, the No. 9 Cowboys are 2-0 after handily defeating their first two opponents, while the Panthers edged an FCS team in their opener and were toppled by Penn State last weekend.

Air Force at Michigan (12:00 p.m., BTN): This week the No. 7 Wolverines face the triple-open. The Falcons were off last week, and will attempt to run on Michigan’s stout run defense, which allowed just 1.1 yards per carry in the second half of both of their previous games, and ranks third in the country in stopping the run.

UCLA at Memphis (12:00 p.m., ABC): The No. 25 Bruins travel to the Tigers. This contest features two NFL Draft projected quarterbacks in UCLA’s Josh Rosen, and Memphis’ Riley Ferguson. Rosen helped lead the Bruins to an incredible comeback against Texas A&M in week one, while Ferguson was less than impressive in the Tigers’ opener. The Memphis QB threw for just 97 yards in a win over Louisiana-Monroe, after a 3,776 yard campaign in 2016. (Memphis’ second game, with UCF, was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma.)

In other games: This is your second consecutive ‘Will Grier is going light it up against inferior competition’ warning - the Mountaineers host Delaware State at noon. Also in the noon slot, you can find Baylor at Duke, a game which may have been exciting a few years ago; and Louisiana at Texas A&M - should you need an SEC fix in the early afternoon.

Afternoon (3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern)

Obviously you will be watching Florida play Tennessee in their home opener, at 3:30 p.m., on CBS.

Evening (7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern)

LSU at Mississippi State (7:00 p.m., ESPN): The No. 12 Tigers head to Starkville tonight. Both of these teams are 2-0 and boast two of the nation’s best defenses and solid offenses - in this very early stage of the season. The Bulldogs’ D is presently ranked No. 6 nationally, while the Tigers land one spot above them at No. 5. These two programs have played tight games the last three years, with the winner taking the game by an average margin of three points.

Kentucky at South Carolina (7:30 p.m., SEC): The Wildcats go to Columbia for an SEC East battle with Will Muschamp’s Gamecocks. Fun fact - South Carolina has actually lost to Kentucky the last three seasons. Another fun fact - the last four games in this series have been decided by a touchdown or less. This would could be close, and interesting, with an improved Gamecocks squad playing their first game of the season at home.

Clemson at Louisville (8:00 p.m., ABC): The top match-up in college football this week is between the No. 3 Tigers and No. 14 Cardinals. Last season, Clemson prevailed in a 42-36 match-up in Death Valley. Louisville has yet to defeat the Tigers since joining the ACC in 2014, though the two have only played three times - and all three times the winner was decided by six points or less. This will be only the fourth ever meeting between the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and the reigning national champion. (Fun fact: the only time that the Heisman winner has won one of those meetings was when the Tim Tebow led Gators defeated LSU in 2008.)

Texas at USC (8:30 p.m., FOX): This will be the first meeting between the No. 4 Trojans and the Longhorns since their immortalized 2005 Rose Bowl which decided the national championship. This meeting obviously does not carry the same gravitas as that one, but could still prove intriguing. The Longhorns trucked San Jose State last week after opening their season on the losing end of a shootout with Maryland. On the other hand, the Trojans are riding high on expectations after edging Western Michigan in their opener and last week’s impressive win over Stanford.

In other games: The night shift has some flavor again this week. Fresno State visits No. 6 Washington at 9:30 p.m., No. 19 Stanford heads to San Diego State at 10:30 p.m., and Ole Miss heads cross country to Cal, of all places, also at 10:30 p.m.

And here’s your schedule table.