2026 College Football Week 0 Preview: Best Games To Watch This Weekend
College football's 2026 season opens with a Week 0 slate featuring five notable matchups, headlined by North Carolina's clash with TCU in Dublin, Ireland. The Tar Heels enter as significant underdogs against the Horned Frogs, with FanDuel Sportsbook listing TCU as an 8.5-point favorite as of Aug. 28.
The Dublin game at Aviva Stadium draws particular attention because of Bill Belichick, who is looking to turn around a UNC program that finished 4-8 overall and 2-6 in conference play in 2025. Both TCU and North Carolina will start new quarterbacks, a factor FOX Sports betting analyst Will Hill flagged as worth monitoring. Elsewhere Saturday, No. 14 USC hosts San Jose State as a 38.5-point favorite, with Hill projecting the Trojans could reach seven or more touchdowns; the two programs met in 2023, when USC scored 56 points against the Spartans. Virginia, unranked but receiving votes in both major polls, hosts NC State as a 4.5-point favorite while also breaking in a new starting quarterback after last year's starter signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent. bet on squash
Stanford will try to avenge a 23-20 loss to Hawaii from last season when the Rainbow Warriors visit Palo Alto; the Cardinal are favored by 4.5 points and return more starters than Hawaii heading into the rematch. The night's final game pits UNLV, fresh off a 10-2 regular season, against Memphis, which went 8-4 in 2025 and opened last year with a six-game winning streak. UNLV is a 4.5-point favorite on FOX.
All five games mark the unofficial start of the season, with several programs testing new starting quarterbacks and coaching situations before conference play begins in the coming weeks.
