As long as we don't see some major alteration to the 2020 football schedule, there are a lot of games not involving Big Ten teams that should generate a lot of interest in Big Ten country and well as the rest of the nation.
We know that the Big Ten will have its annual games like Ohio State versus Michigan and Ohio State versus Penn State and that the non-conference will offer up games like Michigan versus Washington, Wisconsin versus Notre Dame (Green Bay), Penn State versus Virginia Tech and of course Ohio State at Oregon.
But taking all of those off the table, what else is out there? There will be some games that make the list because it is a clash of two titans and others will make the list because of other reasons (don't tell us for a second you won't watch the Egg Bowl this year or at least any press conference involving Lane Kiffin of Ole Miss and Mike Leach of Mississippi State).
We each focus on one game this year outside of the conference that has our attention.
Excluding games involving Big Ten teams, what game are you most looking forward to?
Kevin Noon: UGA at Alabama, Sept. 19
This is probably not fair to Griffin, but I wrote first and I had first choice of games here and I took it. This game will match up likely the best team from the SEC West and the SEC East and very well could be a preview of a game we will see again in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.
A loss here won't hurt a team in its pursuit of a divisional title but a loss here certainly won't help in the College Football Playoff race, even if we truly believe that one loss for a top, top team will knock them out of playoff consideration, provided they are able to win their conference championship (and being in the SEC does not hurt, a league that does not have to worry about being left out of the CFP barring complete pandemonium).
Alabama holds a 40-25-4 edge in this series and has won the last five games with two of the last four games taking place in the SEC Championship Game and one in the national championship.
Even with all of that, the last time these two teams played in Tuscaloosa (Ala.) in 2007, it was the road Dawgs that came away with the win, a 26-23 win in overtime. Georgia held a 20-10 lead in the 4th quarter, only to see Alabama score the last 10 points and force the extra period. Alabama would put a field goal on the board in its half of overtime before UGA would win it when Matt Stafford found Mikey Henderson on a 25-yard, one-play drive.
We should all be so lucky to get a game like that this time around.
Nick Saban has never lost to one of his assistants and Kirby Smart would like to be the first to breakthrough.
Griffin Strom: Clemson at Notre Dame, Nov. 7
Upon first glance at the season slate, there are several big SEC matchups that may seem more appealing on paper, but this rematch of the 2018 Cotton Bowl is a darkhorse candidate to shake up the status quo.
The annual nationwide groan over the Tigers' regular season strength of schedule won't be quieted much with the opponents Clemson has on tap in 2020. Dabo Swinney and company won't face a single team that finished 2019 in the AP Top 25, save one.
Notre Dame will likely be the best team Clemson faces until the postseason, and after examining its 2019 resume, the Fighting Irish had an argument to be ranked higher than No. 12 at the end of the year.
Brian Kelly's team had no business beating then-No. 3 Georgia in the first month of the season, but it gave the Bulldogs all they could ask for up until the clocks hit zero with a 23-17 loss.
The only other loss Notre Dame suffered was to Michigan, a 45-14 drubbing that sticks out like a sore thumb during an otherwise impressive season that saw the Fighting Irish top then-No. 18 Virginia Tech and then-No. 21 Navy by significant margins and finish the year with six-straight wins.
One of the biggest positives in the matchup for the Fighting Irish is that they return senior quarterback Ian Book, who may have had the best season by a Notre Dame passer in a decade last year.
Book threw better than 3,000 yards, 34 touchdowns and just six interceptions a season ago; numbers that rival Trevor Lawrence's own from 2019.
Lawrence and the Tigers will be heavily favored going in, but Clemson did struggle against at least one unassuming opponent in North Carolina last year, and Notre Dame will have the luxury of playing in South Bend, Indiana.
When the two teams meet in November, the Fighting Irish have the added incentive of avenging the 30-3 beatdown they endured at the hands of Clemson a couple years ago.
