On Thursday, Boston College and Georgia Tech joined in college football's newest tradition - playing a game in Ireland. The Eagles and Jackets will face off at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Sept. 3, 2016, in the same stadium Notre Dame and Navy kicked off the 2012 season. Penn State and Central Florida opened the 2014 season at Dublin's Croke Park.
Boston College and Georgia Tech have also joined in another excellent college football tradition: amazing opening days. With a 7:30 am ET kick, the schools will lift the lid on one of the best regular season days in recent college football memory.
Below is a list of games slated for Sept. 3, 2016:
- USC vs. Alabama (at AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas)
- Notre Dame at Texas
- UCLA at Texas A&M
- LSU vs. Wisconsin (at Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin)
- Georgia vs. North Carolina (at Georgia Dome, Atlanta)
- Clemson at Auburn
- Oklahoma vs. Houston (at NRG Stadium, Houston)
- Missouri at West Virginia
- BYU vs. Arizona (at University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.)
In total, that's 10 games worthy of wire-to-wire viewing, and on top of that, Florida State and Ole Miss will play in Orlando on Labor Day night Sept. 5, and the Tennessee-Virginia Tech Battle at Bristol follows on Sept. 10. The USC-Alabama clash pit teams that 1,655 all-time victories, 66 conference championships and 28 national titles, and Notre Dame-Texas follows with 1,762 wins, 17 national titles and 1,453 weeks in the AP poll.
It's all too much, really.
Now consider that the 2010 season opened with a whopping two ranked vs. ranked games total on opening Saturday - No. 6 TCU vs. No. 24 Oregon State and No. 21 LSU vs. No. 18 North Carolina.
Now, if only the 2016 college football opening day wasn't 65 weeks away.