We made it! Week 0 is here, plus our first 12-team Playoff projection

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The next time Until Saturday hits your inbox, we’ll have real games to talk about! For now, we’re previewing Week 0, touring CFB’s unique stadium project and … drumroll please … releasing our official 12-team Playoff projection.

Week 0 Schedule

Sizing up Seminoles

There’s college football this weekend! Here’s the FBS schedule (all times ET):

• Noon, No. 10 Florida State vs. Georgia Tech on ESPN
• 4 p.m., Montana State at New Mexico on FS1
• 8 p.m., SMU at Nevada on CBSSN
• Midnight, Delaware State at Hawai’i

The Week 0 slate doesn’t include a ton of buzz, but I’m still interested in getting a first look at Florida State, in DUBLIN, IRELAND, no less. I asked resident Floridian Manny Navarro what he’ll be watching from the Seminoles this weekend. Here’s what he told me:

“Florida State had to replace a number of key players from last season’s 13-0 Playoff-snubbed squad and didn’t look very good without the 10 NFL Draft picks taken last April in its Orange Bowl blowout loss to Georgia. I’m very interested to see what Norvell asks quarterback DJ Uiagalelei to do without some of the offensive playmakers Jordan Travis had to work with at receiver and tight end. I expect we’ll see more of a screen-oriented passing game and Florida State’s collection of talented backs and Uiagalelei sharing a run-heavy load. Georgia Tech ranked 131st against the run last year. So, I’d be shocked if FSU didn’t just pound it down their throats.

“Defensively, my eyes will be glued to FSU edge rushers Patrick Payton and Marvin Jones Jr., who will go up against a Yellow Jackets offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks in the ACC last season (15 total) and returns four starters. FSU’s defensive line and secondary are very good and coaches are expecting a lot from Auburn transfer Cam Riley at linebacker. Ultimately, I want to get a sense if FSU’s defense is good enough to win an ACC title again all on its own without necessarily the same offensive firepower power it had a year ago before Travis got injured and they got screwed out of a spot in the Playoff.”

Manny dives into Florida State’s Playoff hopes here.

Need tickets? Go here.

Until Saturday Bracket!

My 12-team field

One of the best parts of this season is going to be the constant debate about who’s in and who’s out of the 12-team College Football Playoff field. Here is the official (and first, which means it hasn’t been wrong) Until Saturday 12-team Playoff projection bracket.

Bye teams: Ohio State and Georgia are the buzzy favorites to win their respective conferences, and I believe they’ll live up to the hype. Utah will make a splash in the Big 12 with a conference title as a first-year member behind a heroic comeback campaign from Cam Rising. Then, I have Clemson earning the final first-round bye as the ACC champ (Florida State has too many questions on offense, and Miami will trip up and lose to the Tigers in the title game). Both Utah and Clemson will be tested in their first CFP games, with the Utes falling to former Pac-12 foe Oregon.

The rest: Texas will be without two of its best RBs this season, which will hurt the Longhorns’ SEC title hopes, but they’ll still earn a No. 5 seed. Oregon will make it in comfortably despite losing the Big Ten title game to Ohio State. The Irish will use an early scare against Texas A&M to propel them past the growing pains quickly en route to a No. 7 seed. Then there’s Ole Miss and Alabama, which will make it to this point behind electric offenses. No. 10 Penn State will finally get to say that 10-2 was enough, as the Nittany Lions earn their first CFP bid under James Franklin. Despite a preseason ranking and returning one of the nation’s best wide receivers, Missouri’s CFP bid will still have an underdog feel to it. And, finally, Memphis will earn seed No. 12 with an AAC title and a veteran roster that knows exactly how it wants to play.

Title game pick: Despite five SEC teams in the field, Ohio State beats Oregon in a Big Ten-on-Big Ten affair.

There are a ton of fun Playoff projection models live at The Athletic right now. Austin Mock has projections for the top-50-plus teams with odds to make the CFP, and Bruce Feldman has an updated bracket projection with intel from preseason camp.

Northwestern Stadium Tour

Massive views and small capacity

Last week, I took a field trip a few miles north to tour Northwestern’s temporary Big Ten football stadium. In case you haven’t heard, the Wildcats are building a home to play in for the next two seasons while Ryan Field undergoes an $800 million rebuild (estimated as the most expensive stadium renovation in college football history). I wrote a detailed story of how the university built this stadium in 65 days (yes, that was the timeframe) that you can read here. For now, I’ll answer some of the biggest questions about the stadium project.

• How small is it? The 15,000-seat capacity trails the next-smallest Big Ten stadium by 35,850 seats (Minnesota’s Huntington Bank Stadium) and is more on par with the largest high school stadium in Illinois. Ryan Field housed 47,130 fans, but the university expects to make up for the loss in ticket revenue with significantly more premium seating at the temporary venue (season-ticket packages range from $399 to $3,000).

• Could a ball go into the lake? There’s a major lack of space between the back of the bleachers and the lakefront (NO MORE than 50 feet — and that’s generous). It looks totally possible for a stray kick to land in Lake Michigan, and folks at Northwestern said it would be retrieved.
• Lake-effect weather? While it is a factor year-round, it’s especially prevalent in the colder months. So in November, Northwestern will move to Wrigley Field to play its final two home games against Ohio State and Illinois. But of course, I had to ask, what about the slim chance Northwestern hosts a CFP game in the next two seasons? Would it persevere under lake-effect conditions in DECEMBER? A spokesperson told me it wouldn’t be played at the temporary stadium or at Wrigley, but declined to share a specific location.

Overall, the stadium definitely gives a different feel than other college venues, but the views are great. I’ll try to catch a game there this season and report back on the atmosphere.

Quick Snaps

Break down the ranking of all 134 FBS teams with the Until Saturday podcast today.

Nebraska named former five-star recruit Dylan Raiola its starting QB for this season. The highly touted Raiola will be just the second true freshman to start a season opener for the Huskers.

Which top-10 team has the worst Playoff chances? And which unranked team might replace it in the field? Stewart Mandel answers in this week’s mailbag.

The SEC released a 29-page explanation of its tiebreaker process yesterday in the event it’s needed to determine the teams to compete in the conference championship.

You can buy tickets to every college football game here.

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(Top photo of Mike Norvell: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)