Nick Saban will have this many five-star running backs on scholarship by the time ‘Bama plays Wisconsin. (AP)

SABAN TO THE COWBOYS (STADIUM)—
Brian Floyd (@BrianMFloyd) March 20, 2013

Fans of large smashy men banging themselves together on a football field while wearing varying shades of red, rejoice: 2015′s season-opening Cowboys Classic will feature Wisconsin and Alabama on September 5. You will recall that the Tide have a history of recent success in Arlington; ‘Bama returns to Atlanta for the 2013 season opener versus Virginia Tech. The move extends a streak of interesting-looking high-profile nonconference matchups, with LSU and TCU scheduled for 2013 and Florida State and Oklahoma State (States Florida-and-Oklahoma?) booked for 2014.

Central Florida at Memphis: Now a Big East conference game, for some reason! (AP)

The Big East has released its 2013 football schedule, making this a good time to take a lunch break and remind yourselves just exactly who’s even playing in the Big East next year. [SPOILER ALERT: That'd be Central Florida, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU, South Florida and Temple.]

One early highlight in that ever-blossoming first weekend of the 2013 season is the move of SMU’s opener against Texas Tech to Friday night. The Mustangs and Red Raiders will kick off at Ford Stadium at 8 p.m. ET on August 30.

Fans of neutral-site football played in climate-controlled environments will find much to enjoy on opening weekend. (AP)

Unaffiliated viewers of high-profile neutral-site college football games, rejoice: There will be no choosing between the God’s House O’Chicken Kickoff and the Jerrydome Football Space Camp Classic this year. Per a Tuesday ESPN announcement, the Atlanta game, Alabama vs. Virginia Tech in the Georgia Dome, will kick at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 31, while the Arlington clash, TCU vs. LSU at Cowboys Stadium, will get underway at 9 p.m. With the potential pointsplosion of Georgia at Clemson lurking in between at 8:00 p.m., it’s shaping up to be a very fine first Saturday indeed. Just under six months to go! [weeps uncontrollably]

Hopefully this UConn road trip works out better than their last western jaunt. (AP)

There’s little we like more in the offseason than to hear of larger football programs plotting to meet one another, especially when we don’t have to wait that long to see it happen: Connecticut and BYU have announced a two-game home-and-home series that begins the season after next. The Huskies and Cougars have never met in football, and will remedy this oversight with a game in East Hartford on August 28, 2014, followed by a date in Provo on October 31, 2015.

One thing we know we’ll be able to count on in 2020: Chris Petersen still being the head coach at Boise State. (AP)

We only just finished toasting Virginia for having the pluck to venture into a certain blue-turfed lair, and already we must congratulate another school: Florida State has just announced the scheduling of a two-game home-and-home series with Boise State. FSU will host the Broncos in Tallahassee on September 7, 2019; the Seminoles will travel to Boise for a September 12, 2020 rematch. What’s the bad news, besides having to wait that long? Hoping this game even gets to happen with all the connference square-dancing that’s bound to take place between now and then.

By 2019, we predict team-color fields will be the norm, and helmets will be outfitted with PredatorVision visors to enable players to better make out cleverly disguised defenders.

Barring a bowl matchup between now and then, the 2019 game will mark the first meeting between these two programs. For high-profile nonconference blue turf games happening sooner than 2020, check out Chadd Cripes’ list of future Broncos opponents. Boise State will visit Washington and BYU and host Southern Miss in 2013.

Only 5 of 24 scheduled November MAC games will be played on a Saturday. #MACtion—
Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) March 01, 2013

The 2013 MAC schedule is out, and we’re going to skip right to what we know you want and excerpt the weeknight games for the season ahead:

Read More…

2012 Sun Belt champs Arkansas State will rematch with the runner-up Ragin’ Cajuns in mid-October. (AP)

The 2013 Sun Belt football schedule is out, including agendas for new members Georgia State and Texas State, and can be perused in its entirety on the conference’s website. The release contains a phrase that’ll probably become common once conference realignment becomes the new normal, but still elicits a giggle: “All four of the Sun Belt Conference’s bowl teams from 2012 (Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and WKU) return for the 2013 season.”

Check out some key dates after the jump:

Read More…

Iowa State and Tulsa will play a rematch of last year’s all-weather mascots Liberty Bowl in ’13. (Fred Brooks/Icon SMI)

Conference USA has announced schedule adjustments for two conference games and two nonconference games, with all four contests moving into prime-time weeknight slots. The new dates are as follows:

• Iowa State at Tulsa, Thursday, September 26

• Marshall at Middle Tennessee State, Thursday, October 24

• Marshall at Tulsa, Thursday, November 14

• Florida Atlantic at Miami, Friday, August 30

The full 2013 league schedule is available for download here, if you’re into that sort of thing. Conference USA’s first scheduled games, as of this writing, will kick off on opening Thursday and feature the Blue Raiders and Golden Hurricane hosting Western Carolina and visiting Bowling Green, respectively.

Will the Hawkeyes break their seven-point streak in the 2013 Hy-Vee Heroes Game? Probably not, right? (AP)

Huskers and Hawkeyes of anti-shopping bents, rejoice and get ready to deploy the perfect excuse to skip the post-Thanksgiving family outing to the Galleria and do all your early Christmas shopping online. The Hy-Vee Heroes Game, a renewed annual football clash between Nebraska and Iowa, will continue to be staged on Black Friday for the rest of recorded time, or until the next round of conference realignment separates the two schools, whichever comes first.

The contest took place on the Friday after Thanksgiving in each of the past two seasons, but it had previously been scheduled as a Saturday game in 2013. The Cornhuskers have won each of the past two games in the resurrected series, by respectable Big Ten margins of 20-7 and 13-7, but no matter which squad triumphs in 2013, the work of the novelty T-shirt makers is already done. Who you got: BLACKSHIRTS FRIDAY or BLACK (AND GOLD) FRIDAY?

This mascot once existed and this photograph here proves it. (Jeff Lack/Icon SMI)

In the latest alterations and additions to future college football schedules, 2013′s opening Thursday gets a border rivalry, Baylor plays a metaphor game and Virginia ventures where few power-conference programs dare:

• North Carolina vs. South Carolina, Thursday, August 29, 2013. The primetime prelude to the first college football Saturday is bolstered by the addition of a Tar Heels-Gamecocks matchup. You will watch it, because it is there.

• Baylor vs. Wofford, Saturday, August 31, 2013. Have you ever wanted to see how an actual bear would do attacking an actual terrier? Because that’s probably what this is going to look like.

• Boise State vs. Virginia, 2015 and 2017. Clutch those pearls: A BCS conference team heading into Boise! Wonders never cease. The home-and-home series is currently scheduled for September 26, 2015 in Charlottesville with a return trip to the blue turf on September 23, 2017. Say what you will about the Cavaliers; Virginia schedules with gusto. Following a 2012 slate that included dates with Penn State, TCU and Louisiana Tech, the Cavs’ 2013 schedule features home stands against Oregon and BYU. Also, the team once employed, very briefly, that strange snuggly horse mascot. We like Virginia, is our point.