College football opening night open thread

JADEVEON COMIN'.

Better news for us than North Carolina quarterback Bryn Renner, as the Tar Heels battle the Gamecocks to kick off the college football season.

Here's the breakdown from the .com (all times Eastern):

Thursday

	6 p.m. ET	North Carolina	at	6 South Carolina	ESPN
	6 p.m. ET	Liberty	at	Kent State	ESPN3.com
	6:30 p.m. ET	Presbyterian	at	Wake Forest	ESPN3.com
	7 p.m. ET	Illinois State	at	Ball State	ESPN3.com
	7 p.m. ET	Tulsa	at	Bowling Green	ESPNU
	7 p.m. ET	Indiana State	at	Indiana	Big Ten Network
	7 p.m. ET	UNLV	at	Minnesota	Big Ten Network
	7 p.m. ET	Akron	at	UCF	ESPN3.com
	7:30 p.m. ET	Western Carolina	at	Middle Tennessee
	7:30 p.m. ET	Southern Utah	at	South Alabama	ESPN3.com
	7:30 p.m. ET	Towson	at	UConn	ESPN3.com
	7:30 p.m. ET	UT-Martin	at	Chattanooga	CSS
	8 p.m. ET	Utah State	at	Utah	FOX Sports 1
	9:15 p.m. ET	Ole Miss	at	Vanderbilt	ESPN
	10 p.m. ET	Sacramento State	at	San Jose State	KLIV
	10:30 p.m. ET	Rutgers	at	Fresno State	ESPNU
	11 p.m. ET	24 USC	at	Hawaii	CBSSN

Afternoon and evening shifts

Best options: North Carolina at South Carolina, Ole Miss at Vanderbilt

North Carolina at South Carolina
Announcers: Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, David Pollack, and Samantha Ponder
Odds: South Carolina -12.5
Weather: Mostly sunny with possible thunderstorms, high in the mid-90s.

The Tar Heels and Gamecocks get the season started on a really nice note. South Carolina could be a national title contender if things break the right way, and at the very least the Tar Heels are intriguing and could make some noise in the ACC. These border rivals don't get together that often, so let's all enjoy the show. Also, Clowney comin'!

Ole Miss at Vanderbilt
Announcers: Joe Tessitore, Matt Millen, and Maria Taylor
Odds: Vanderbilt +3.5
Weather: Mostly sunny, high in the mid-90s.

An SEC conference game on the first night of the season? Gods be praised. It should be a pretty good one too. Both teams are trying to claw their way up the conference pecking order, and a loss on the first night of the season is a real bad way to go about doing so. Vanderbilt's had better results than Ole Miss over the past several years, but the Rebels have program momentum after a bumper recruiting class this past February.

Plan B: Tulsa at Bowling Green, Utah State at Utah

Three of the four teams in these two games can make a compelling case towards darkhorse conference title status. The fourth is Utah. These games should be entertaining, at the very least.

Break in case of emergency: UNLV at Minnesota, Akron at UCF

I don't know about this, guys.

Night shift

Best option: Rutgers at Fresno State

Announcers: Dave Flemming, Mike Bellotti, and Lewis Johnson
Odds: Fresno State -10
Weather: Sunny with a high of 100.

The general public may not be up on them right now, but Fresno State could be really good this year, and Rutgers should be pretty decent too. This has the makings of a very competitive game, so Irish up your coffee a little and stay up for this one.

Plan B: USC at Hawaii

USC enters 2013 on a mission to restore its reputation as a top football program, and they get to start that task by beating up on Hawaii, who is led by Norm Chow, one of the architects of their mid-2000s dynast-[REDACTED].

I'll be watching Ole Miss closely later on tonight to get an early scouting report on where the Rebels are at with all their young talent. At least the Texas should have recruited Bo Wallace narrative is dead, right? Right?