Never Too Early: Next Season's Week 1 Slate Is Going To Be Cinema

I know it's only January, but please go ahead and make sure to clear your calendar for August 28-September 1. You will thank yourself later.

We have an absolutely loaded Week 1 slate coming in 2025, featuring a College Football Playoff rematch between Ohio State and Texas — which could be No. 1 vs. No. 2 to open the season in Arch Manning's first game as the Longhorns' starting quarterback — Notre Dame at Miami, LSU at Clemson and Alabama at Florida State. I used to pray for times like this.

My favorite thing about looking at this schedule is seeing the majority of these games being played on campus. Big games, especially those between teams who don't play each other often, should be played in the stadiums that make college football the incredible spectacle that it is. Syracuse and Tennessee could have reprised their home-and-home series that featured the Vols needing a field goal as time expired to escape Donovan McNabb and the Orangemen — a nickname to which that school needs to return — en route to a national championship in 1998. Instead, those teams will play in a muted atmosphere in Atlanta because they'll get a little extra cash. Play games on campus.

My ideal slate on August 30 is Notre Dame-Miami at noon, LSU-Clemson at 3:30 and then Ohio State-Texas at 7:00. That is a Playoff quarterfinal-caliber day of college football and we get it to open the season. What a great day to look forward to as we attempt to make our way through the next seven months without the world's most beautiful game.