College Football To Kickoff With Unique Matchups

[NT80]

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College football to kick off with unique matchups

By Craig Bennett, USA TODAY

The first Division I-A college football game is Aug. 30, but it's never too early to start making plans. USA TODAY's Craig Bennett offers insight into this season's schedule.

Notable debuts

•Sept. 1, Neil Callaway (Alabama at Birmingham) and Mark Dantonio (Michigan State) are the only Division I-A coaches making their debuts at their respective schools against each other.

•North Texas' Todd Dodge, who has never been a college head coach and has been a college assistant for only three seasons in the early 1990s, makes his debut Sept. 1 at Oklahoma. Gerry Faust, hired out of Moeller High in Cincinnati, won his Notre Dame debut 27-9 vs. LSU in 1981.

•Coach David Elson and Western Kentucky begin the first of two years of transition from I-AA on Sept. 1 at defending national champ Florida. The Hilltoppers, who will play in the Sun Belt, face five other I-A schools this season.

•Florida International's Mario Cristobal has his first game as a I-A head coach Sept. 1 against Joe Paterno, who began his head coaching career at Penn State in 1966 — four years before Cristobal was born. FIU enters that game having lost 12 in a row.

•Temple plays its first official Mid-American Conference game Sept. 8 at home against Buffalo.

BCS business

Non-BCS schools will host BCS schools 31 times this year (schools from the Big Six leagues traditionally don't travel very often to schools in the other five I-A conferences). It was 24 last year after being at 26 in 2005 and 2004. In 2002 and 2003, there also were 31 such matchups. The rest of the history: 1997 (year before BCS instituted), 27; 1998, 29; 1999, 26; 2000, 22; 2001, 21.

Counting the days

Longest span of games goes to New Mexico State and Oregon State at 93 days, from Aug. 30 to Dec. 1. They each had 93 days last year as well.

Something extra

By rule, teams playing at Hawaii are allowed a 13th game. Washington and New Mexico State are the only I-A schools doing so. Both teams will use a bye, however. Hawaii also is allowed 13 games but was not able to fill an open date and will play 12.

Also worth noting

•Michigan opens at home Sept. 1 against two-time defending I-AA champ Appalachian State. It's the first time the Wolverines have played a I-AA team since the classification was created in 1978.

•Akron takes on Army on Sept. 1 at Cleveland Browns Stadium. The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission said it hopes that is the first of a series of games it will call the Patriot Bowl and feature a MAC school and one of the service academies in the season opener every year.

•For the second year in a row, no Big Ten school will use a bye. Others with no bye weeks: Baylor, Eastern Michigan, San Diego State, Texas Tech and Tulane.

•New coach Jim Harbaugh and Stanford won't leave the state for a game until Oct. 20 at Arizona. However, all six of those games are against teams that played in bowls last season.

•Tennessee, which opens Sept. 1 at California, is the only SEC school playing outside the league's "footprint," meaning beyond the Central and Eastern time zones. By contrast, Pac-10 schools will be in six such games (Southern California at Nebraska, Washington State at Wisconsin, Oregon at Michigan, Washington at Syracuse, Washington at Hawaii, Oregon State at Cincinnati).

•Florida International, involved in a brawl during a 35-0 loss at Miami (Fla.) last season, visits the Orange Bowl again Sept. 15. Neither team will have the same head coach. New FIU coach Mario Cristobal was an assistant at Miami last year, as was new Miami head coach Randy Shannon. Cristobal has a Cuban background, and Shannon is African-American. Thus, the game also is one of only two in I-A in the regular season matching minority head coaches. UCLA-Washington is the other.

•Duke is on a 20-game losing streak. The I-A record is 34 (Northwestern, 1979-82). Duke visits Northwestern on Sept. 15.

[MeanGreenBuzz]

Cool that we got noted for that. Can't beat free publicity.

[gruu]

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•North Texas' Todd Dodge, who has never been a college head coach and has been a college assistant for only three seasons in the early 1990s, makes his debut Sept. 1 at Oklahoma. Gerry Faust, hired out of Moeller High in Cincinnati, won his Notre Dame debut 27-9 vs. LSU in 1981.

I'll be happy if we can beat 0U 21-9 this fall...