Open Thread: The last Saturday without Vanderbilt football

The SEC is still waiting another week before beginning its season, a fact that will be confusing to some Anchor of Gold readers after going through the following list and seeing that both Atlanta and Tulane are in action today. Still, for your Saturday open thread purposes for those of you who will not be watching the U.S. Open (a list that may not include me), here is today’s college football schedule, the final Saturday for a while without any SEC (or Vanderbilt) football. All times listed are Central.

11:00 AM

• Tulsa at Oklahoma State (ESPN)
• Austin Peay at Cincinnati (ESPN+)
• UL Lafayette at Georgia State (ESPN2)
• Syracuse at Pittsburgh (ACC Network)
• Liberty at Western Kentucky (ESPNU)
• Navy at Tulane (ABC)
• Boston College at Duke (FSN/ESPN3)

Yep, the one game in this window on a national over-the-air network is Navy at Tulane. That’s college football in 2020, but particularly early in the season with the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 not playing yet, and the Big 12 slogging through non-conference play.

Anyway, I’m not going to do the old SB Nation thing and tell you which game to watch, though as an Anchor of Gold reader you are probably very interested in old rival Tulane playing a game it will probably win, and of course BC-Duke.

1:30 PM

• South Florida at Notre Dame (USA)

If you’re confused about why Notre Dame is playing on USA, NBC is broadcasting the U.S. Open, which is usually in June so they don’t have to worry about interfering with Notre Dame football.

2:30 PM

• UCF at Georgia Tech (ABC)
• Appalachian State at Marshall (CBS)
• Stephen F. Austin at UTSA (ESPN2)
• Troy at Middle Tennessee (ESPN)

Only in 2020 does this mid-afternoon television lineup make sense at all. To recap: ABC is violating the SEC’s non-compete clause in its contract with CBS by televising two games involving SEC teams back-to-back, with Atlanta hosting UCF on the heels of Navy-Tulane. CBS is showing Appalachian State at Marshall, and ESPN has Troy-Middle Tennessee. And Stephen F. Austin at UTSA is on ESPN2. You know what, you all should probably just watch the U.S. Open. Or watch Atlanta, I don’t know.

3:00 PM

• The Citadel at Clemson (ACC Network)

why

5:00 PM

• SMU at North Texas (CBS Sports Network)

Oh, wait, this might actually be an interesting game.

6:30 PM

• Miami at Louisville (ABC)
• Louisiana Tech at Southern Miss (ESPN2)
• Texas State at UL Monroe (ESPNU)

ABC actually managed to come up with a decent tripleheader on this otherwise meh Saturday. And you might have missed it, but Southern Miss for some reason fired its head coach one game into the season.

7:00 PM

• Wake Forest at NC State (ACC Network)

Oh, okay, cool.

8:00 PM

• Abilene Christian at UTEP (ESPN3)

Hell fuckin’ yeah we’ll watch late-night UTEP football.

Enjoy.