The NCAA College Football 2014 FBS Division I-A schedule kicks off next week and the first game of the season is an SEC Conference matchup between the Texas A&M Aggies against the South Carolina Gamecocks on Thursday and some other teams in action over the first two days include Ole Miss, Boise State, Washington State, Rutgers, Michigan State, Arizona State, UNLV, Colorado and Syracuse among others.
The college football season is hotly anticipated this year with the debut of the college football playoff and these first few weeks could be huge in determining who ends up in the top four spots. The first major game of the season has Texas A&M visiting South Carolina and that matchup has two ranked teams going at it and the loser of that game will have a tough time in the SEC and this game could be big in the conference down the line this season.
The Aggies are preparing for life without Johnny Manziel and they will open things against a top 10 team, while they come in ranked number 21 in the preseason poll. South Carolina and the Aggies start up at 6 pm ET on Thursday August 28 and some of the games after that are on ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports Network as well as the SEC Network, ESPN3 and WatchESPN online.
Thursday has a large slate of games after the Aggies and Gamecocks, as the Rebels of Ole Miss will play Boise State at 8 pm Et, while Arizona State is in action at 10:30 pm ET on the Pac-12 Network. Tulane and Tulsa are also on the schedule, while Rutgers and Washington State are playing out west and that will also be a late game. North Dakota State and San Jose State are matching up, as are Idaho State and Utah.
The Friday matchups to start the season include UConn taking on BYU in the early game, while Michigan State comes in as a top 10 team and opens at 7:30 pm ET against Jacksonville State. Friday also has UNLV and Arizona, as well as Villanova and Syracuse along with Colorado State and Colorado. Saturday has lots of big teams playing, including Michigan, UCLA, Ohio State, Penn State, Alabama, West Virginia as well as Texas, Washington and Wisconsin playing against LSU.
The Aggies have a solid schedule to start the season with games against Rice, SMU and Lamar and their late schedule gets tough, as they have games with Alabama, Ole Miss, Auburn and Missouri. SC also has a tough schedule, including an early game against Georgia as well as matchups with Auburn, Clemson and Florida. Washington State opens with Rutgers before playing Nevada, while Michigan State has Oregon in their second game and that will be one to keep an eye on.
Check here for the full NCAA college football schedule for the first week of the season.