Never miss a CFP - Natty Road 🏈 update!
Straight up truth: Your wedding, birthday, baby gender-reveal, anniversary, retirement, whatever. On college football Saturdays, IDGAF!
I admit this with zero shame. From September into January, up in the press box, out in the stadium seats, or on the flatscreen at home, college football is my happy place. This is why I lived through your recessions, wars, plagues, your poop-lettuce recalls, and 15 years straight of your relentless daily political BS.
Judge if you must, but I live half the year for college football Saturdays.
The main event
Preseason No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 Oregon headline the ranked vs. ranked schedule. But they don’t clash until November.
Plus, Ohio State has to survive defending champ Indiana first, in Bloomington in October.
I don’t have the Hoosiers past the final 4 this year, but screenshot this: Coach Cig will find a way to shock somebody in a regular-season trap game.
Meantime, Natty Road runs through early in-conference wars and brutal SEC vs. Big Ten collisions.
Must-see TV
These high-stakes matchups will no doubt shape this year’s CFP bracket:
Ohio State at Texas (Sept. 12): Ryan Day brings quarterback Julian Sayin and star receiver Jeremiah Smith into Austin. The early loss puts immediate championship pressure on either powerhouse.
LSU at Ole Miss (Sept. 19): Pure SEC bad blood. No. 11 LSU travels to No. 9 Ole Miss as Lane Kiffin returns to Oxford for the first time as Tigers head coach after walking out on the Rebels following 2025. Expect pure venom.
Georgia at Alabama (Oct. 10): No. 3 Georgia travels to Tuscaloosa to wage war against No. 13 Alabama in an early high-leverage knockout fight for playoff position. And really, Kalen DeBoer is about due to either deliver Bama back to the promised land or get those cheeks crisping on an absolutely sizzling hotseat by the end of the year.
Ohio State at Indiana (Oct. 17): Curt Cignetti’s defending national champions went 16-0 in 2025 and brought in TCU transfer Josh Hoover at QB. The No. 6 Hoosiers hosting the No. 1 Buckeyes is a brutal clash for Big Ten dominance.
Oregon at Ohio State (Nov. 7): Preseason No. 1 vs. No. 2 in a colossal regular-season heavyweight bout that will factor bigly in the conference race and CFP seeds.
The bottom line
The 2026 college football season doesn’t ease into greatness; it’s about to hit the ground running, and grunting, and bleeding.
And I genuinely DO NOT care what non-football festivities, milestones, or life-changes you have planned. Sorry, not sorry.
More from Natty Road:
#NCAAfootball #CollegeFootballPlayoff #NCAAFB #APtop25 🎓🏈