ACC teams opened the season cleanly in Week 0, going 4-0, but the real test arrives fast. This week brings a stretch unlike anything else on the calendar: nationally televised ACC games five straight days, running from Thursday through Monday of Labor Day weekend.
It starts Thursday with Akron at Wake Forest, then rolls through a busy weekend capped by a Sunday ACC game before the NFL kicks off. The marquee matchups are easy to spot - Cal against UCLA on Saturday night at Memorial Stadium, Clemson at No.
11 LSU on Saturday, and No. 24 Louisville at No.
9 Ole Miss on Sunday.
Cal’s meeting with UCLA carries extra intrigue because it pits two new coaches against each other. The Bruins are a 1.5-point favorite, and Cal officials said Thursday morning that only 3,500 tickets remained for Tosh Lupoi’s first game as head coach. They expect a sellout.
Wake Forest’s opener against Akron, set for 4 p.m. on ACC Network, should be a comfortable one for Jake Dickert. Dickert, the former Washington State coach, went 9-4 in his first season at Wake last fall, which was the most wins ever by a coach in his debut year in the program’s 124-year history.
Another early game sends Colorado to Georgia Tech, where Deion Sanders returns to Atlanta - the city where he was Prime Time with the Falcons and Braves. Sanders is in his fourth season at Colorado, and the Buffaloes are trying to rebound after a 3-9 season. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is coming off a 9-4 year.
Syracuse gets New Hampshire at 9 a.m. on ACC Network, and that one gives quarterback Steve Angeli a chance to get his feet under him. Cal’s Week 2 opponent will open at home against a softer foe, which should be useful as Angeli tests the left Achilles tendon he tore in Week 4 last season while leading the nation in passing yards at the time.
Pittsburgh hosts Miami-Ohio at 9:30 a.m. on the CW Network. Miami has reached the MAC title game three years in a row, but starting quarterback Thomas Gotkowski was hurt in fall camp. The RedHawks will turn to redshirt David McComb, a Kansas transfer who has not thrown a college pass.
Boston College takes on Cincinnati at 12:30 p.m. on Fox, and the Eagles are dealing with one of the toughest scheduling loads around. They are one of only five teams that lined up 11 or more games against Power 4 opponents or Notre Dame. That is a heavy lift for Bill O’Brien’s group after a 2-10 season.
Duke also enters the week with some momentum under Manny Diaz. The Blue Devils have won nine games in each of Diaz’s first two seasons, something no previous Duke coach had done. If that keeps up, the pressure in Durham could shift in a hurry if another program comes calling.
Clemson’s trip to LSU has drawn attention for reasons beyond the rankings. Dabo Swinney, whose team went 7-6 last season, called the state of college football “embarrassing” this week while speaking broadly about a dispute over LSU players’ eligibility. The issue centers on two players who received favorable court rulings that appear to allow them to play Saturday, even though they spent time in NFL training camps and the SEC says that kind of move violates conference rules.
Virginia Tech gets VMI at 4:30 p.m. on ACC Network, with the Hokies benefiting from the recent upheaval at Penn State. James Franklin, who went 34-8 at Penn State from 2022 through 2024, was fired after a 3-3 start last season that ended with a one-point home loss to Northwestern.
Louisville’s showdown at Ole Miss is one of Sunday’s headliners, and the Cardinals will have their hands full. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has 3,937 passing yards and 22 touchdowns in 2025, while running back Kewan Lacy has added 1,567 rushing yards and 24 touchdowns. Louisville is promoting both as Heisman Trophy candidates.
The weekend closes Monday with No. 19 SMU at Florida State on ESPN. Rhett Lashlee has built plenty of momentum in Dallas, leading SMU to 31 wins over the past three seasons, and that résumé suggests he may not be getting quite enough attention.
In Other News...
Cal Fans Now Face A Dark New Question About That Resignation
Chelsea Spencers resignation as UC Berkeleys head softball coach in June 2025 initially landed as a personal decision, one tied to mental health and family reasons. At the time, it was framed as the abrupt end of a notable chapter in the program, the kind of departure that leaves fans looking back on what might have been while trusting the explanation they were given.
Now the story carries a far darker edge. A lawsuit filed in August 2026 by an anonymous former player has put Spencer and the university under legal scrutiny, raising questions about what was happening inside the program long before the resignation became public. The case also suggests the school was notified of the allegations and took action against the player, turning a once-private coaching departure into a broader reckoning for Cal athletics. [Read more 🡒]
Cals UCLA Opener Just Got Trickier Than Bears Fans Realized
UCLAs season opener against Cal is looking a little more complicated for the Bears than it did a few days ago. In a Q&A with UCLA Bruins on SI, Kade Nix laid out why the Bruins have become a tougher read under new head coach Bob Chesney, who is already changing the tone around the program and giving UCLA fans real reason to pay close attention to the start of the season.
Nix also dug into the Bruins roster and pointed to a few pieces that could make the opener more difficult on both sides of the ball, especially if the offense takes a step forward the way some around the program expect. The Cal defense will need to sort through a revamped attack and a new coaching staff at the same time, which is plenty to handle before you even get to the uncertainty around who lines up for the Bruins when kickoff finally arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Fans Just Set A Much Higher Bar For Tosh
Cal football fans have spent part of the offseason mapping out what 2026 might look like, and the early read is plenty encouraging. The fan predictions behind the exercise paint a schedule with a lot of optimism baked in, enough to suggest a Bears team that should be competitive from week to week rather than simply hoping to scrape together a bowl bid.
A simulation built from those predictions points to a solid season, with different paths available depending on how a few swing games go. The one wrinkle is that the projections still leave a clear hurdle on the calendar, which is exactly the sort of detail that can turn a hopeful outlook into a real measuring stick for Tosh and his program. [Read more 🡒]