Top College Football Games to Watch
As with our top high school football games of the season, we also can’t wait for the beginning of the college football season.
The 2020 season presents an interesting landscape for the fall, as it looks like there could be more playoff contenders than ever. While the NCAA is set to vote on the upcoming season, we can’t help but speculate on the best games to come. Here are the top college games to watch for 2020.
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Notre Dame VS Wisconsin (Lambeau Field)
Two historically significant college football teams face off in one of the most famous stadiums in the history of football. It doesn’t get much better than that. Lambeau Field is a short, two-and-a-half hour drive from Madison, Wisconsin, the home of the Badgers, as both teams will have this October matchup as a potential to vault either team into playoff contention.
ESPN’s latest preseason rankings had both of these teams in the top 16, with Wisconsin as high as No. 4. They’re receiving a lot of hype with Jack Coan at quarterback and a lot of talent returning to the defense. This will be a great test for both teams and a fun game for all fans to watch.
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Texas @ LSU
This is another great matchup that was one of the best games of 2019. We didn’t know what LSU was at the time, but Texas played the Tigers closer than just about anyone else in the country last season as LSU went on to win the national championship. Now the Longhorns return the favor by traveling to Baton Rouge in early September of 2020.
LSU did win the championship, but lost a lot of talent, including Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow. But they do return the best wide receiver in the country, Ja’Marr Chase, and star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.
Texas still has quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who is an outside candidate for the Heisman Trophy, and a couple of strong recruiting classes, including the top running back in the class of 2020 in Bijan Robinson. This game will surely produce fireworks once again and could give a path toward either of these teams to have real success in 2020.
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Alabama VS USC (AT&T Stadium)
Will USC ever be back? That is the question Trojans fans (like myself) ask daily as USC has had an identity crisis over the last 10 to 12 years. Through multiple head coaches and a recruiting scandal, the Trojans struggled to get back to the top of the PAC 12 and to a national title contender. Now, this team is in a lot of preseason top 15 rankings, and the Trojans are statistically rated as having the fifth most returning production in the NCAA after a successful season. They’re led by rising sophomore Kedon Slovis and a spread out air raid passing attack.
Alabama is Alabama, and that will never change with Nick Saban at the helm. The biggest thing about this season for the Crimson Tide is how much talent is coming back to the defensive side of the ball. Along with stars on defense like Dylan Moses, Jaylen Waddle may be the most entertaining player in college football next season.
This is a game that has 28 national championships between the two teams and also could be an important game for playoff implications.
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Georgia VS Florida
The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party is one of the best rivalries in college football. It’s a rivalry that stretches back over one hundred years, and every year in Jacksonville you’ll see a swarm of red and black from the north and a sea of blue and orange from the south. And each game has its own share of fireworks.
The theatrics of this game go back decades, famous games such as Herschel Walker going over the top to beat the Gators in 1981, Knowshon Moreno’s “Gator Stomp” in 2007, and Urban Meyer’s subsequent “Gator Stop” the following year. The rivalry has seen some of the best players, best games, and best atmospheres in college football, and 2019 appears to be no different.
2020 should be one of the best games to date with two of the best quarterbacks in the SEC in Florida’s Kyle Trask and Georgia’s Jamie Newman. There’s a good chance that these two teams are in the top 10 by the time this game happens on Halloween. Florida will be the favorite in every game until then, including against LSU, and Georgia has a tough game against Alabama, but still would be a top-10 team even with a loss to the Crimson Tide. Not to mention, if Georgia does lose to Alabama, the Bulldogs will be fighting for their playoff lives in this rivalry game. It will be a great game, no doubt, and we certainly can’t wait for the matchup.
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Ohio State @ Oregon
There is one game that will definitely feature two top-10 opponents. In Week 2, the Buckeyes will travel to Eugene, Oregon, to take on the Ducks. Oregon is once again in contention, ranking No. 8 in the ESPN preseason rankings. They are led by multiple great recruiting classes and star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux. The one question for Oregon is replacing Justin Herbert, but the Boston College transfer had over 4,700 yards in three years with the Eagles. The Ducks will be a contender this season.
One team doesn’t have a question at quarterback, and that is Ohio State with Justin Fields. A Harrison High School native, Fields had 51 total touchdowns in his first season at Ohio State and is one of the favorites to win the Heisman trophy in 2020. He’s incredibly talented, and Ohio State constantly churns out the best talent in the country.
Written by: Kyle Grondin
