In the first week of July, I submitted 10 games (two per weekday) of the the games you should watch in Week 1 of the impending CFB season.
I decided to shelve the idea of doing subsequent until August when CFB is actually on the mind of sane people (some of us can't help that it's a 365 day phenomenon to us.)
For today, you'll get four games, and then I will resume the normal two per day schedule. I plan on doing Week 2 this week and Week three next week and then I will actually wait until Week 4 to do that countdown since we will actually be beginning to get a good idea of what's really worth watching by that time.
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10. Ole Miss at Missouri
Saturday, September 9 - 11:30 a.m.
FSN
Normally, a game between teams that went 3-8 and 7-5 the previous season wouldn't so much as register a blip on my radar, but after Missouri came back on South Carolina after being down 21-0 in the first quarter of the Independence Bowl, they've piqued my interest. I also want to see what Orgeron has cooked up in his second season.
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9. Auburn at Mississippi State
Saturday, September 9 - 11:30 a.m.
Lincoln-Financial/ESPN Gameplan
This is the game you will have on the "previous channel" button on your remote to go back and forth with from the #10 game. The part about not wanting to watch games between teams with lopsided records from the year before holds true here as well, but Auburn has been on fire the last few years and I want to keep an eye on what level of destruction they'll be bringing to Starkville that day.
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8. Arizona at LSU
Saturday, September 9 - 5:30 p.m.
ESPN2
LSU got into an absolute shootout with Arizona State last in a very entertaining game. That doesn't really have anything to do with this match up except for the fact that LSU is playing another Pac-10 team from Arizona.
I'm not going to pretend to know a lot about Arizona, but after looking at their 2005 results I was intrigued. I saw that even though they went an abysmal 3-8 in 2005, six of their 11 games were decided by a touchdown or less, so maybe than can give LSU a scare. Also, they absolutely beat the piss out of 10-2 UCLA by a score of 52-14. SEC/Pac-10 games are usually fun, so that's why this one made the list.
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7. Texas Tech at UTEP
Saturday, September 2 - 8:00 p.m.
CSTV
Texas Tech really does have a horrible logo don't they?
Anyway, Texas Tech has been getting more media attention lately and is trying to establish itself as a serious player in the Big XII. They've had a winning record every year since 1995 and haven't had a losing season since 1992. However, they're only a combined 2-8 in the last five years against Texas and Oklahoma, the big boys of the Big XII South. Also, the huge offensive numbers they put up tend to cease when they aren't playing I-AA teams.
Former Crimson Tide coach (well sort of) Mike Price has greatly elevated UTEP's status in two short years. UTEP was 4-21 in the two years before Price's arrival and they're 16-8 in the two years he's been there.
If UTEP can somehow pull out a win here, it'll be a very significant win for UTEP as well as Price.
(games 5 & 6 will be posted tomorrow)