I know the 2026 season hasn't started yet but started to look forward to 2027 using FBSchedules.com.

Maybe this is a welcome diversion from the Protect College Sports Act.

This year is the first year that the SEC is playing a 9 game conference schedule. As of yesterday...

Kentucky still has four non conference opponents scheduled for 2027, Toledo, Murray State, Ball State, and of course Louisville. One of them will have to be dropped and of course Louisville isn't going anywhere.

Missouri has three non conference opponents scheduled plus Illinois but a date hasn't been scheduled with Illinois part of a long term agreement between the two schools. Illinois and Missouri were supposed to play this year but that game was put off, I assume, so Missouri could make room for a 9th conference game this year. Missouri's other scheduled non conference opponents for 2027 are Illinois State, San Diego State, and Florida Atlantic so I assume Missouri will drop one of these schools and add Illinois.

Meanwhile, Alabama, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas A&M all have just two non conference opponents currently scheduled and would need to add one. Of these five teams, Alabama is scheduled to play Ohio State, Vanderbilt is scheduled to play Stanford, Arkansas is scheduled to play Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M is scheduled to play Arizona State. Mississippi is scheduled to play Oregon State but I don't think that qualifies as a Power opponent anymore meaning they need a Power opponent for 2027. Georgia has only Georgia Tech scheduled for 2027, they need two non conference games in 2028.

Over in the Big Ten,

No team is overscheduled since they have been operating under 9 conference games longer.

Illinois has the game with Missouri but doesn't have a date.
USC has contracted a game with Nevada but doesn't have a date.
In addition, USC still needs another non conference opponent on top of Nevada. Their only non conference opponent with a set date is UNLV set for Sept. 4.
Washington and UCLA also have just two non conference opponents scheduled.

I don't know if the "Week 0" is official official yet. Currently Northwestern State at LSU, Eastern Illinois at Illinois, UC Davis at UCLA, and Pittsburgh vs. Wisconsin in Dublin are scheduled for Aug. 28. Other schools that have an opening could certainly decide to play that day or schools could move currently scheduled games to Aug. 28.

So playing some musical chairs here...

Illinois has Aug. 28 (Eastern Illinois) and Sept. 11 (Delaware) taken. Missouri has Sept. 4 (Illinois State) and Sept. 11 (San Diego State). Sept. 18 is too obvious a choice although if both the SEC and Big 10 give the two schools Sept. 25 or a later week off they could play then.

USC has Sept. 4 taken and Nevada has Sept. 11 taken (Utah State) so again Sept. 18 seems like the obvious date.

If Mississippi wants to play a Big Ten team as its Power opponent...

They have games vs. Charlotte (Sept. 4) and Oregon State (Sept. 18) so ideally they would want a Big Ten opponent Sept. 11. In 2027 Mississippi is scheduled for five SEC road games so ideally they would want to play the Big Ten opponent at home and wouldn't mind traveling to the Big Ten opponent in 2028 when they get five SEC home games.

There are three Big Ten teams currently open on Sept. 11, 2027, USC, Washington, and UCLA, which coincidentally all need a non conference opponent!

UCLA however is scheduled for five road Big Ten games (although to be fair one of them is USC). On the other hand, UCLA also is playing a road game at Hawaii in 2027. To have UCLA play another road game on top of that would be crazy.

Washington plays five Big Ten home games but is scheduled to play at Washington State.

That leaves USC who is playing five Big Ten home games in 2027 and is not scheduled to play a non conference road game. So they can play Sept. 11, 2027 in Oxford with the return game Sept. 16, 2028 in Los Angeles. We can call it the Anti Kiffin Bowl!

Other potential Big Ten-SEC matchups based on Sept. 4-18 openings (I highly doubt any Big Ten-SEC matchups will be played Aug. 28)

Sept. 4: The only Big Ten teams open are Illinois and Wisconsin. Wisconsin has their non conference schedule set. Illinois needs to schedule Missouri but Missouri has Eastern Illinois that week. Georgia is open from the SEC but Illinois and Wisconsin are full anyway.

Sept. 11: In addition to USC and Mississippi, UCLA and Washington are open from the Big Ten and Alabama is from the SEC (Auburn is but they're full in terms of non conference opponents). Alabama already is playing Ohio State, they really don't "need" to play another Power Team. Technically either UCLA or Washington could play Mississippi if they're willing to play a 6th/7th road game.

Sept. 18: A lot of SEC teams become options here, Georgia, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Texas A&M although all of them have already have a Power opponent scheduled. The problem is the only Big Ten team that are open are Illinois (they're saving their opening for Missouri) and USC. If USC is willing to play Nevada later in the season (Sept. 11 isn't an option) and one of the above teams is willing to play a 2nd Power team on top of nine SEC games, one of them could play USC Sept. 18.

To me, USC-Mississippi makes too much sense for 2027 and helps both schools in 2028.

Of course if USC plays Mississippi in 2027 they're not playing a certain other school...

One final addition: The SEC playing conference opponents the second to last week (formerly known as "Cupcake Week") of the season goes into effect in 2027. Currently Mississippi State is still scheduled to play Chattanooga Nov. 20. That game must be moved to comply with the new policy. All other SEC schools have already rescheduled their cupcakes. As for Chattanooga-Miss State, Miss State currently has Sept. 4 and 11 taken while Chattanooga has other games August 26 (Thursday) and Sept. 18 so that game would have to be scheduled sometime between September 25 and November 13. Would rescheduling it for November 13 be abiding by the letter but not the spirit?

Some Week 0 movement ...

https://fbschedules.com/oklahoma-smu-uta...e-changes/

Oklahoma moves its first two games up from September 4-11 to August 28-September 4. September 11 is now open for them.

It's interesting to note Oklahoma didn't move the SMU game to August 28 but the Utah State game. If I had to guess, August 28 will become a warm up week for most top schools. I saw a Reddit post suggesting big "Week 0 games" but a response was Miami-Florida State tried some season openers and produced a lot of low scoring games. Last year Texas-Ohio State was a season opener and was 14-7. If I'm Texas or Ohio State, it's one thing to play a big non conference opponent but another to play them your first game. In addition, if the first game isn't Labor Day weekend there's less incentive for the networks to want as big a game that week (or we shall see). There will definitely be some give and take between schools and networks as to when games are played. Networks are paying the bills but there's always give and take involved...

Expanding into the ACC...

"Starting in 2027, 16 teams will play a nine-game ACC schedule annually, with one team each season playing eight league games and scheduling two Power Four opponents outside the conference to accommodate the 10 Power Four games requirement."

https://theacc.com/news/2025/12/16/footb...egins.aspx

Brett McMurphy said although I wasn't able to confirm from the ACC that Clemson will play eight ACC opponents in 2027.

https://www.on3.com/news/acc-finalizes-w...m-2026-32/

McMurphy's list: "The breakdown of teams playing eight ACC games: Clemson (2027, 2028), Georgia Tech (2029, 2031), Syracuse (2030) and Florida State (2032)."

Looking at FBSchedules.com for 2027 non league opponents:

ONE non conference opponent scheduled:
SMU (Oklahoma) - Since they have a Power team they can just find two G6/FCS opponents.

Two non conference opponents scheduled:
Florida State (Florida)
Miami (Utah)
Stanford (Vanderbilt and Notre Dame)

Four non conference opponents scheduled:
Clemson: Wofford, Notre Dame, Georgia State, South Carolina
Georgia Tech: Tennessee, Hampton, Georgia, Notre Dame
Boston College: UTEP, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Rhode Island
North Carolina: Central Florida, Purdue, Connecticut, North Alabama

Assuming Clemson plays only four non conference games.

Boston College likely drops either Rutgers or Cincinnati. BC is playing both of them in 2026. This year BC is playing both of them, Notre Dame, and eight ACC games with Maine their only non power conference game so it wouldn't surprise me if Boston College kept both Rutgers and Cincinnati for 2027. They could postpone of them to 2029 (BC has four non conference games in 2028 including Notre Dame and BYU, games I'm sure BC has no intention of cancelling or postponing).

North Carolina played UCF in 2025 at Orlando so they have more incentive to play that game. UNC's return game vs. Purdue isn't until 2031 so postponing that game would be much easier. Purdue would need to find a new opponent. They could play one of the ACC teams that need an opponent although all of them currently have a Power opponent (although does Purdue really count as a Power opponent?) The other issue is Purdue would be overmatched by all of Miami, SMU, or FSU (not that Purdue wouldn't be overmatched by most ACC schools anyway). Purdue-Stanford (who needs a non conference game) would likely be fair but Stanford is already playing Vandy and Notre Dame, asking them to play 12 Power teams would be completely unrealistic.

Georgia Tech could drop Tennessee and there's a fairly decent solution to help them and another school out. Tennessee is starting a home and home with Washington 2028 and 2029. Washington needs a non conference game in 2027. Georgia Tech would postpone Tennessee from 2027 to 2029 while Washington moves their game at Tennessee from 2029 to 2027. The catch is then Washington will play six road games in 2027. Then again Washington is scheduled to play at Tennessee in 2029 and unless the Apple Cup is cancelled after 2028 (it's not currently scheduled) they would be playing at Pullman anyway. The Big Ten rotation has Washington playing five road Big Ten games every even numbered years. The only way to continue the Apple Cup would be to have WSU host in odd numbered years and if UW wants any non conference Power home and homes they will have to schedule six non conference road games in a season somewhere. Next year Michigan is playing six road games (five Big Ten and Texas) as FOX/ESPN traded places in their home and home so it's not completely unprecedented that a top team plays six road games once in a while.

In 2029, assuming McMurphy is correct, GT will only play eight home games so they'd have no problem playing both Tennessee and Georgia. The problem then is GT is scheduled to play Notre Dame (which might be why they got eight games in 2029). Tennessee-Georgia Tech could certainly postpone their game to 2031. Georgia Tech is scheduled to play Alabama in 2031 in addition to Georgia although if I had to guess that home and home (2030/2031) likely gets cancelled as in 2030 GT will have to play nine conference games (In addition Alabama has Notre Dame in 2030 and Boston College in 2031).

Postponing Tennessee from 2027 to 2031 and cancelling Alabama gives Georgia Tech 10 Power conference teams every year until 2031 (they have Notre Dame scheduled in 2032 which gives them another problem although by then who knows who will be in the ACC?)

The ACC just announced their nine game opponents so

North Carolina-Purdue for 2027 has officially been postponed. One source has the game being played in 2032.

Instead of Georgia Tech canceling Tennessee they are instead cancelling Notre Dame which opens up a spot for the Irish. Unfortunately for Purdue and Notre Dame they are already scheduled to play each other in 2027. But you know who still needs an opponent for 2027? USC!

Mississippi filled an opening on their schedule with Eastern Illinois. They will not officially have a Power non conference team on their schedule as their non conference games are Eastern Illinois, Charlotte, and Oregon State. I am assuming Oregon State is acceptable as a Power 5 opponent since it was scheduled while the Beavers were still in the Pac 12 and the Pac 12 was still a Power conference.

In other SEC/Big Ten non conference news, the game was always scheduled but Michigan at Texas, one huge non conference game, has been moved from Sept. 11 to Sept. 4 (Labor Day Saturday) as both schools essentially moved up all of their non conference games up one week. We know schools wanted to take advantage of the new Aug. 28 date but was ESPN (who has the rights to the 2027 game) prefer Labor Day weekend for the game instead of the following weekend?

Updated:

Georgia still needs TWO non conference games as Georgia Tech is their only non conference opponent.
Alabama still needs a non conference opponent (they currently have Marshall and Ohio State).
Texas A&M still needs a non conference opponent (they currently have Texas State and Arizona State).
Missouri still needs to drop a non conference opponent (they have Illinois, Illinois State, San Diego State, and Florida Atlantic).

USC still needs a non conference opponent (they currently have UNLV and Nevada)
Purdue still needs a non conference opponent (they currently have Notre Dame and Miami Ohio)

Scheduled an Aug. 28 Game:

SEC: Arkansas (Gardner Webb), Kentucky (Murray State), LSU (Northwestern State), Misssissippi (Eastern Illinois), Misssissippi State (Missouri State), Oklahoma (Utah State), South Carolina (Furman), Texas (New Mexico State)

Big 10: Illinois (Eastern Illinois), Iowa (North Dakota), Michigan (Buffalo), UCLA (UC Davis), Wisconsin (Pittsburgh in Dublin)

Some discussion on filling the new "Week 1"...

https://awfulannouncing.com/college-foot...-2027.html

This is not a drill! This is not a drill!