A Grip on Sports: It’s never too early to start feeling overwhelmed by the tsunami that is college football and its crowded schedule

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Are you already feeling a little overwhelmed? College football’s opening weekend isn’t even 20% done and the unrelenting game coverage, conversation and crud threatens to crush us completely. And force us to ask one more question. What other games are on this weekend?

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• We sampled the competition yesterday. Sort of akin to Kanye West. A little Boise State tossed around here, a bit of Cincinnati celebrity sightings mixed in there. Kept track of Wisconsin and Wyoming. Wished Duke and Houston were playing each other, instead of Elon and Stephen F. Austin. And the matchup would be in hoops, not their secondary sport.

I also realized, every time I clicked over to SportsCenter, college football is a tsunami that washes away baseball, tennis, soccer. Whatever else in its path. This weekend at least. And in this country.

Which brings us to our usual Friday exercise. Plotting out the weekend TV schedule. And doing it for the final time this year without the NFL involved.

But not without football. No way.

Thursday night was the appetizer – though No. 25 Boise State’s beatdown seemed more like a big ol’ barnyard sandwich for Bronco fans. And those who hoped the re-formed Pac-12 would enter its first season boasting another College Football Playoff participant. It may still happen, but the memory the 34-7 all-phases defeat won’t wash away easily from the minds of the selectors.

Or ESPN’s talking heads, which probably matter more.

Friday night’s slate of games, highlighted, if that’s the right word, by Georgia Tech at Colorado and Auburn at Baylor, probably won’t purge BSU’s loss from the nation’s consciousness either.

That won’t happen until Saturday. When all heck breaks loose.

Four games that everyone – and I mean everyone – wants to see. No. 1 Texas at No. 3 (though second in the coaches’ poll) Ohio State (9 a.m., Fox). No. 9 LSU at No. 4 Clemson (4:30, ABC). No. 8 Alabama at No. 211 or something Florida State (12:30, ABC). No. 7 (FCS) Idaho at criminally under-ranked Washington State (7, The CW, which can be found on KSKN in Spokane).

What a weekend.

Heck, North and South Dakota posting twin road upsets of last week’s Ireland combatants, No. 17 Kansas State and No. 22 Iowa State, may prove jet lag is real but won’t even move the needle compared to the big four.

Heck, those four games are so good, it’s hard to rank them in some sort of hierarchy. I mean, the Battle of the Palouse? It can’t be fourth, can it?

Not here at least.

• Of course there are more games available on linear TV Saturday. Heck, I counted 21 in the handy, dandy listing that landed on my doorstep this morning. That’s pretty normal. And doesn’t include all the games available in the newfangled non-linear fashion. Like ESPN+ (which has EWU’s opener at Incarnate Word at 4 p.m.) or each other less-well-known purveyors such as FloCollege (Gustavus Adolphus at Whitworth, 1 p.m.) and the like.

If you have the right streaming provider, the right TVs and the right amount of technological knowledge span, you can set up your living room to resemble a Vegas sports book. Without the cigarette smoke, of course.

• If I had that setup, and didn’t have a wedding to attend, I would make sure to also keep up with Syracuse at Tennessee (9 a.m., ABC), New Mexico (hey, there’s Jason Eck) at Michigan (4:30 p.m., NBC), Cal at Oregon State (7:30, ESPN) and Utah at UCLA (8, Fox). But that’s just me.

• Somehow, someway I will have to make room for the Mariners – considering I love pain and they are the road, two things that go together. The Cleveland series features Friday and Saturday night games (4:10 and 4:15, respectively) and one Sunday morning (10:40). Root has Friday and Sunday, Fox Saturday.

• A couple more highlights from the weekend await. The Sounders will host Lionel Messi and Miami for the Leagues Cup title Sunday. The match starts at 5 p.m. and will be available via MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.

Sixth-ranked Notre Dame and No. 10 Miami meet again in South Florida on Sunday night as well (4:30, ABC). That game follows No. 13 South Carolina hosting Virginia Tech (noon, ESPN), which would seem to have limited interest outside NASCAR country.

The Labor Day extravaganza this season? It features two unranked teams. TCU and North Carolina. For the life of me, cough, Bill Belichick, cough, I don’t know why. Whatever. It is on ABC starting at 5 p.m.

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WSU: A new coaching staff and an almost completely new roster means new opportunities for everyone. Greg Woods highlights one such player who has taken advantage, redshirt freshman linebacker Anthony Palano. … Scott Hanson has more stories on WSU in the Times today. He profiles Raam Stevenson and the offensive line leaders. … The S-R’s college football preview section has so many stories, we could not link them all yesterday. But we wanted to make sure we linked this one on Lee Corso. … Or this one ranking every team in the FBS. … Or this one on 20 important players. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, of course we have picks to pass along. Jon Wilner’s appear in the S-R. … John Canzano has his on his website. … We also have these national ones for you. … We mentioned this yesterday in the Utah/UCLA game section but YouTube TV and Fox made it official Thursday. The carriage dispute is over. … Here is the rest of the schedule, listed chronologically.

– USF 34, No. 25 Boise State 7: The Broncos couldn’t run the ball. They couldn’t hold on to it. Their special teams failed. So did the defense. And their veteran quarterback couldn’t overcome it all.

– San Diego State 42, Stony Brook 0: The opener went just the way the Aztecs wanted it. Mainly the win, sure, but also the way they ran the ball.

– Georgia Tech at Colorado (Friday, 5 p.m., ESPN): The Yellowjackets are favored to sting the Buffs in Boulder.

– Montana State at No. 7 Oregon (Saturday, 1 p.m., Big Ten Network): Not sure we will find out this weekend how much the Duck defense has improved. If at all. … Kingston Lopa gives it some flexibility.

– UTEP at Utah State (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network): This won’t be the Aggies toughest game. But it is first. And the first test for the defensive line.

– Missouri State at USC (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Big Ten Network): The Trojans need their defense to be better this season.

– Georgia Southern at Fresno State (Saturday, 6 p.m., FS1): The game will be on YouTube and all platforms.

– Northern Arizona at Arizona State (Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPN+): Don’t expect the Sun Devils to hold back against the Lumberjacks. There is too much on the line every week these days. With everyone watching.

– California at Oregon State (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ESPN): The Bears finally have the financial wherewithal to compete with its ACC foes. … Not sure the Beavers will answer every question this weekend but some are answered here.

– Hawaii at Arizona (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., TNT): The Wildcats’ opener is against a team with a win already.

– Colorado State at Washington (Saturday, 8 p.m., Big Ten Network): Demond Williams Jr. is a cool operator. And just what the Huskies need. … A loss is just part of the worst-case scenario for the Dawgs. … Jedd Fisch has a lot to prove. … So do the Rams, who have more than a few storylines to follow. And one player with a heck of a lot of letters in his name.

– Utah at UCLA (Saturday, 8 p.m., Fox): The Utes have a revenge factor going for them to start their schedule. … The Bruins need to grow from last year’s tough season while their second-year coach may need to just grow up.  

• In basketball news, the Arizona men promoted from within on their coaching staff.

Gonzaga: Around the West Coast Conference, the Santa Clara women’s soccer team is always good. And the return of a key player from injury will help them continue that tradition this season.

EWU: There is a tradition of great receivers at Eastern Washington. The names are memorable. That Kupp guy. Someone named Bourne. The recently graduated-to-the-NFL Efton Chism. And now? Dan Thompson tells us the next in line is Nolan Ulm, who is entered his sixth season as a college player. … Dan also has a preview of the matchup with Incarnate Word, ranked fourth or fifth nationally but coming off a season-opening loss to Nicholls. … Elsewhere in the (current and future) Big Sky, Northern Colorado will start to show whether it has improved when it hosts Chadron State on Saturday. … Idaho State came close to topping UNLV last week. But it cost the Bengals their starting quarterback for the game against Southern Utah. … Cal Poly travels to San Diego. … Not only does Sacramento State open with a big game against South Dakota State with a new quarterback, the Hornets also have a new football stadium on the way. … It will be a while until we find out how good Montana’s roster will be.

Idaho: We’ve linked a lot of this week’s Battle of the Palouse coverage in the Washington State section. The Cougars are the host, after all. But no one knows the matchup better than Idaho offensive coordinator Matt Linehan and his family. Peter Harriman has more on their roots in the series.  

Indians: Spokane took what Tri City gave them, which included nine walks, Friday night to pick its sixth consecutive win. Dave Nichols was there and has the coverage of the 7-5 victory.

Velocity: The cancelled match from last week in Maine? The USL announced yesterday it will be made up Oct. 21.

Mariners: We linked Adam Jude’s road-woe story above. And do it again here. … It is also The Athletic’s key subject for the M’s down the stretch. … We like the latest version of Eugenio Suárez. The M’s need the good vibes. … Kyle Schwarber moved within one home run of Cal Raleigh yesterday. All it took was the Philly doing something that had happened just 20 times before. He slugged four home runs in one game. No matter. Both may win MVP honors.

Sounders: Yep, Messi Mania is alive and well in Seattle.

Seahawks: No, I’m not a uniform guy. I couldn’t care less what teams wear, as long as I can read the numbers. But when a uniform reveal invokes a response like the one yesterday on social media, I have to pay attention. And laugh, considering in the hometown of rival Washington, Nike decided to give the Hawks an Oregon-like look. … Was Sam Darnold’s 2025 season who he is now or was it just an aberration in a mediocre career? We are all about to find out. … Seattle is starting to get a little more positive attention nationally. … The starting offensive line is young. …This sounds very Mariner-like. “Hey, we kicked the tires on Micah Parsons …”

Reign: Seattle hosts San Diego tonight.

Storm: Down 21 points, Seattle seemed finished. After all, the Storm were playing the WNBA’s best team. They stormed (sorry) back and defeated the Lynx 93-79.

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• Enjoy your free time this weekend. Next weekend the NFL joins the fray. Oh boy. Until later …