Ranking Week 0 Games By Importance

The first few weeks of the college football season often put together some quality games that have a decent level of importance on a national scale. It’s worth noting that many games are not important – or close – at all. Let’s take a look at the Week 0 contests and rank them on a scale of importance in the overall context of the college football season. Let’s kick things off with the least important game, ranked fifth, and work up the ladder to the most important one.

5. Southern Utah Thunderbirds at San Jose State Spartans

This is the only game with an FCS team involved. Southern Utah is picking up a paycheck to give its opponent a warm-up. San Jose State is coming off an ultra-impressive year in which the Spartans went 7-0 in conference, defeating Boise State and San Diego State before finally losing to Ball State in the Arizona Bowl to finish 7-1.

The only way this game has any relevance for San Jose State, is if the Spartans find a way to lose this game, which is massively unlikely. The Thunderbirds have won five games in the last three years combined. They won a single game last year and are not a threat to challenge this year. San Jose State should win this going away. 

4. UTEP Miners at New Mexico State Aggies

Aggies head coach Doug Martin enters his ninth year in charge of the New Mexico State football program. The Miners are entering head coach Dana Dimel’s fourth year in charge, and he has gone 5-27 overall. Neither head coach promises to deliver much this season, but the Miners have more talent on the sidelines and that usually matters. New Mexico State is a hollowed-out program searching for a spark. It’s UTEP’s game to lose.

3. Connecticut Huskies at Fresno State Bulldogs

In terms of national importance, the Bulldogs are expected to compete for a Mountain West title this year, and a loss to UConn would be a fairly significant blow to their Group of Five New Year’s Six bowl plans, even if it will not have an overall impact on their Mountain West chances. UConn has struggled since hiring head coach Randy Edsall for a second go-round (he previously coached there a decade ago). Edsall is 6-30 in his return to New England, and that doesn’t include last year, when the Huskies opted out of playing entirely. The Bulldogs need this game if they want to vie for the Group of Five championship, because a loss would surely nuke their chances. 

2. Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at UCLA Bruins

The Bruins are going to be expected to do fairly well this year. A loss to the Rainbow Warriors would surely put a damper on those plans. This game is also interesting from a coaching perspective. Todd Graham and Chip Kelly barely crossed paths even though they both coached in the Pac-12 at other schools. They met one time and one time only. Kelly was at Oregon from 2009-2012 and Graham coached the Sun Devils from 2012-2017. In their one head-to-head meeting, Oregon ripped the Sun Devils, 43-21. This contest won’t have quite the same flair, but it still contains national value: It will be the lead-in for UCLA’s much bigger game the following week against LSU. The Bruins need to weed out their mistakes now to get ready for a season-defining game against the 2019 national champions.

1. Nebraska Cornhuskers at Illinois Fighting Illini

This is the only conference game on the menu for Week 0, and that automatically vaults it to the top of the list in its national importance. It marks Bret Bielema’s return to the Big Ten with the Illini. He previously coached at Wisconsin and did really well with the Badgers.

Nebraska head coach Scott Frost is in a do or die year. He is on the hot seat. He has not done what he was hired to do by the Huskers, having won 12 games in his last three years. If he can’t beat this Illinois team, his seat will burn up. Frost could be one of the first coaches fired.

That’s enough to make this the most important Week 0 game on the board.