College football returns

The GIST: Fire up the grill and pull out your best game day ’fit because, after last week’s Week 0 soft launch, college football is officially back, with a stacked lineup of Week 1 showdowns on deck.

How it works: The sport’s best squads compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), which includes 131 schools across 10 conferences. Of those 10 conferences, the Power Five — the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC — generally house both future NFLers and College Football Playoff (CFP) contenders.

• Each school will play 12 regular-season games over the next 13 weeks. Then a 13-member-committee will determine which four squads qualify for the CFP based on a combo of records, strength of schedule and rankings. Yes, it gets pretty complicated.

• The CFP semifinals (aka the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl) will kick off on New Year’s Eve before the reason for the season, the National Championship, takes place on January 9th.

The favorites: To no one’s surprise, perennial contenders Alabama (last year’s runner-up), Ohio State and Georgia (the reigning national champs) make up the preseason top three.

• And, as always, ’Bama is particularly stacked, boasting 2021 Heisman winner Bryce Young at quarterback (QB) along with linebacker Will Anderson Jr. — the likely No. 1 NFL draft pick in 2023. Let the good times roll.

Tomorrow’s top games: Lucky for us, Week 1 is starting off with a bang, featuring not one, not two, but three (!!!) top 25 matchups. First, No. 23 Cincinnati — last year’s Cinderella story — faces No. 19 Arkansas and No. 11 Oregon travels to Georgia to take on the defending champs, both at 3:30 p.m. ET tomorrow.

• Then cap off the night with a top five showdown: No. 5 Notre Dame vs. Heisman Trophy favorite QB C.J. Stroud and No. 2 Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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