Greg McElroy calls for significant change to Week 1 of college football schedule

Greg McElroy has an idea that would result in a significant change to Week 1 of the college football season. He wants college football to own that weekend before the NFL gets in full swing.

The idea would be to own the entire weekend with games from Thursday through Monday with the biggest matchups. That would include all Power Four teams in action against nonconference opponents.

If you want some marquee matchups, this would be the weekend for you. McElroy argued for what seems like a college football bonanza.

“I think we can do more,” McElroy said on Always College Football. “I’ll be sitting there on my couch and or in a booth, consuming as much college football content as humanly possible, there in week one of the college football season. But what we should do, because there is no NFL, there is no competition, we own that weekend. We have exclusivity over that weekend. We should make week one the greatest spectacle of nonconference matchups that we can possibly imagine. 

“And I’m talking year to year. I know these schedules are scheduled way out in advance, in some cases, like Clemson and Notre Dame, they agreed just last week to a 12-game series that starts in 2027, running all the way through 2038. But what I propose is, let’s make sure we have the biggest possible matchups for every power four team on that week one, and if that means we have triple header on Thursday, triple header on Friday, triple header on Saturday, triple header on Sunday, triple header on Monday, then so be it. Monday’s a holiday. Let’s play a game at noon, 3:30 and at seven, load it up with marquee matchups across the board.”

Week 1 is considered August 23rd through September 1st. Some of the marquee matchups, as McElroy alluded to, are Syracuse-Tennessee, Texas-Ohio State, Alabama-Florida State, LSU-Clemson, Notre Dame-Miami and TCU-North Carolina.

Can the sport do better as McElroy suggested? It certainly can if they rework the schedule to include many more Power Four non-conference matchups that could have playoff implications. At the very least, like McElroy wants, the games that can make the opening weekend a spectacle and must-see TV.

If college football wants to become the NFL, or have similarities, it needs to be a landmark date on the sports calendar. The potential is there.