Wherein Excitement Is Found for Sep. 2nd

Stewart Mandel at SI has a quick bit on games to look forward to on the opening week of football season. UNC-Rutgers is not on that list, unsurprisingly. The interesting thing though is the number of Rutgers fans, there and elsewhere - this game has become a real litmus test of how the Scarlet Knights will fare this year. There was similar talk with regards to Utah in 2004 - the path of their season hinged primarily of the results of that game. You sometimes forget how North Carolina is viewed outside of a conference that defaults to lumping them with Duke.

As for September 2nd, I'm looking forward to it as being a game I might actually see on TV, but the true week of college football will be two weeks later with: Clemson at FSU, Miami at Louisville, Florida at Tennessee, LSU at Auburn, Michigan at Notre Dame, Nebraska at Southern Cal, Oklahoma at Oregon and Iowa State at Iowa. UNC, of course, draws Furman.