College football finds winning formula with long-weekend blowout
September 9, 2016 at 2:42AM
• College football has found a terrific opening week formula with all the marquee matchups over the holiday weekend. ESPN announced that 81 million viewers tuned in between Thursday and Monday night's Ole Miss-Florida State game. This was almost better than bowl season, with each team still undefeated. Wisconsin-LSU, for example, would have been another ordinary Citrus Bowl or Outback Bowl, but from all accounts, the atmosphere at Lambeau Field was electric.
• Gophers followers might want to set the DVR on Saturday. Penn State plays Pittsburgh at 11 a.m., right when Minnesota plays Indiana State. The Gophers open their Big Ten schedule at Penn State on Oct. 1, and it'll be interesting to see how the Nittany Lions and new QB Trace McSorley look in this tuneup against an in-state rival.
• Otherwise, this week's slate isn't overly compelling for the Big Ten, save for North Carolina-Illinois and Iowa State-Iowa. Things heat up significantly in Week 3, with Ohio State at Oklahoma, Michigan State at Notre Dame, Oregon at Nebraska and five-time defending FCS champion North Dakota State at Iowa.
JOE CHRISTENSEN
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