Ranking college football’s 10 must-watch non-conference games of 2024

The second half of a home-and-home with Penn State for the first time in 30 years, the Mountaineers entertain the Nittany Lions in one of opening weekend’s most underrated tilts. The battle between quarterbacks Drew Allar and Garrett Greene makes this incredibly exciting since overreactions will reach nuclear levels if one of the signal callers featured outshines the other in a big way. While many have projected Penn State as a playoff team in 2024, West Virginia will have a point to prove as one of the Big 12’s darkhorses.

An early September matchup of transfer quarterbacks next season at Autzen Stadium, former five-star USC signal caller Malachi Nelson is expected to be Boise State’s starter going up against former Oklahoma standout Dillon Gabriel. This game is important for two reasons — Oregon will be a preseason to-five team with its new Big Ten schedule beginning a few weeks later while the Broncos could be among the Group of Five’s playoff threats if they upset the Ducks on the road. First-year Boise State coach Spencer Danielson could have his hands full against Dan Lanning.

The fans owe college football’s schedule-makers for this one. Notre Dame and Texas A&M open the 2024 season at Kyle Field where former Duke quarterback Riley Leonard, now the starter for the Fighting Irish, faces off with his former coach, Mike Elko, who leads the Aggies. Notre Dame has been a unanimous choice in various way-too-early polls, but not Texas A&M. The jury is still out on the Aggies in their first season with a new leader after so many transfer portal departures. This is where Texas A&M could put itself on the map against a quality opponent behind a sellout crowd in College Station.

Some of the offseason love will evaporate more quickly than it appeared for the loser of this game at Bank of America Stadium. The Wolfpack and Vols each won nine games in 2023, but they’re going to look very different. NC State’s roster is portal-infused with an elite haul this cycle on the free agency market, while Tennessee is giving the keys to its offense to former five-star signee Nico Iamaleava, who accounted for four touchdowns in his team’s blowout win over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl.

College football will see quickly how far along Alabama is under first-year coach Kalen DeBoer when the Crimson Tide take their first road trip of the season. This matchup’s equally important to Luke Fickell to being Year 2 with a bang after the Badgers failed to impress — based on lofty expectations — last fall. Camp Randall Stadium is one of the most raucous environments nationally, but it’s nothing Alabama hasn’t seen in the SEC. This one’s a must for the Crimson Tide given the rest of the slate.

Early lines for this seismic ACC-SEC matchup indicate the Bulldogs are double-digit favorites, which is exactly the A1 bulletin board material Dabo Swinney and the Tigers needed for their locker room. These two opened the 2021 season in Charlotte and the only touchdown was an interception return by Georgia that swung the contest’s momentum. The two programs battle for the same players annually on the recruiting trail and will use this game as a springboard of sorts into the rest of the season as a national championship contender.

There’s a chance neither of these teams will be ranked when they open the season in Gainesville unless the Hurricanes garner respect after a talent-rich portal haul this recruiting cycle. However, that’s not going to alter the stakes here, whatsoever. Temperatures will rise for the coach who loses this one given Billy Napier’s consecutive losing seasons and Mario Cristobal failing to meet expectations at Miami. These two have split the last four meetings, but have played only once in the past decade.

Clemson played Notre Dame in these non-conference tilts a couple times in recent years, but now it’s defending ACC champion Florida State’s turn to get a bite at the apple in South Bend. DJ Uiagalelei has started a game against the Fighting Irish before on the road and lost, doing so as Clemson’s QB1 in 2022. He gets a chance to right his wrongs with a better performance as the leaders of the Seminoles, one of the nation’s elite who must replace a considerable amount of production from this season’s 13-win squad.

Two coaches whose stock took a marginal dip, Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley look to get back to the ranks of the elites early during the 2024 campaign. This one’s made for the bright lights of Las Vegas and features a quarterback battle that will attract considerable attention with first-year starters Garrett Nussmeier and Miller Moss taking over. Both come off fantastic performances during bowl wins and each have multiple years in their respective offensive systems. Fireworks are expected here to open.

Is this where the nation’s longest winning streak ends for Michigan in 2024? It could be. The gargantuan non-conference matchup of the 2024 season, you’re looking at two of the frontrunners to reach the expanded College Football Playoff, again. The winner of this game will have quite the resume bonus when the selection committee meets one final time in December despite this one being played in early September. The margin for error is slim the rest of the way for the loser of this game, by the way, even with an expanded playoff.