Written by SI Staff at SI.com
Week 2 is almost loaded with enough great games for neutral fans to forgive the major networks for cramming every marquee matchup into the same window. Almost.
Four games with national implications (Clemson-Auburn, Georgia–Notre Dame, Ohio State–Oklahoma and Stanford-USC) are scheduled to kick off within a span of 90 minutes on Saturday night from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. ET, setting up an evening that could pose the most frustrating channel-flipping quandary of the season. Based on the results of those eight teams’ season openers, all four could come down to the wire—and as they scramble to keep up, viewers could still be missing out on the end of the first SEC game of the season, or the opening minutes of a pair of late-night measuring-stick games out west.
That’s not to say you’re free to unplug from the college football world until supper time. Multiple ranked teams find themselves playing earlier in the day (if they’re still playing this weekend at all) as schools in the southeast scramble to adjust their schedules for the arrival of Hurricane Irma, and a pair of in-state rivalries were already expected to spice up the afternoon action.
Below, our writers and editors make their picks for Week 2, then take turns defending them. The list of pickers: Andy Staples, Bruce Feldman, Joan Niesen, Chris Johnson, Eric Single, Molly Geary and Scooby Axson.
NORTHWESTERN AT DUKE (12 P.M. ET, ESPNU)
Molly Geary picks Northwestern: The Wildcats needed far longer than they should have to put away Nevada, trailing midway through the fourth quarter before quarterback Clayton Thorson willed them to victory. He and standout back Justin Jackson should be too much for a young Blue Devils defense to contain.
IOWA AT IOWA STATE (12 P.M. ET, ESPN2)
Chris Johnson picks Iowa: The great EDSBS has dubbed this game “El Assico,” but it actually might be a pretty good watch this year. Iowa’s blowout win over Wyoming last week served notice that it’s a dark horse to beat out Wisconsin in the Big Ten West.
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