LSU's visit to Texas in Week 2 last year was the novelty game of the college football season.
What's a novelty game? It's a new game, an original game we don't see often, or ever. It's the "ohhhh that's gonna be interesting" game, one with tantalizing circumstances, storylines or history. It was LSU-Texas last year. It was Auburn-Oregon, Army-Michigan, Washington State-Houston, and UCF-Stanford, among others.
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Here are the 25 best novelty games of the season:
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Notre Dame vs. Navy | Dublin, Ireland |
This isn't a novelty matchup; Notre Dame and Navy have played in 83 consecutive seasons dating back to their first game in Baltimore in 1927. This is, however, a novelty location and a rare exception to my hatred of neutral-site games.
The eighth-ever game in Ireland is also Notre Dame's first game in Ireland since blasting Navy at Aviva Stadium eight years ago.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan at Washington | Seattle, Wash. |
| 1 | Florida State vs. West Virginia | Atlanta, Ga. |
| 1 | North Dakota State at Oregon | Eugene, Ore. |
| 1 | Ole Miss at Baylor | Waco, Texas |
| 1 | TCU at Cal | Berkeley, Calif. |
| 1 | Temple at Miami (FL) | Miami Gardens, Fla. |
| 1 | USC vs. Alabama | Arlington, Texas |
| 1 | Virginia vs. Georgia | Atlanta, Ga. |
One of two FCS teams on the list, North Dakota State visits Oregon in the most anticipated FCS-FBS game since the Division-I split 42 years ago. Arguably the second-toughest opponent on Oregon's schedule, the Bison have never played a Pac-12 team and have five wins over Power teams since 2010.
In Jimmy Lake's first game as head coach, Washington plays Michigan for the first time in 19 years and just the fourth time ever in Seattle. Despite their respective west-coast and mountain backgrounds, Lake and Jim Harbaugh have never met as opposing coaches.
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Elsewhere, the Al Golden and Manny Diaz Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida State and West Virginia's first-ever regular-season meeting, and TCU and Cal's second-ever meeting (and first since the bizarre 2018 Cheez-It Bowl).
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Texas at LSU | Baton Rouge, La. |
| 2 | Ohio State at Oregon | Eugene, Ore. |
| 2 | Mississippi State at NC State | Raleigh, N.C. |
| 2 | Auburn vs. North Carolina | Charlotte, N.C. |
| 2 | Arkansas at Notre Dame | South Bend, Ind. |
| 2 | Penn State at Virginia Tech | Blacksburg, Va. |
| 2 | Tennessee at Oklahoma | Norman, Okla. |
| 2 | Pittsburgh at Marshall | Huntington, W.V. |
One year after being the most anticipated non-conference game in college football, the second half of Texas and LSU's home-and-home series still carries big weight and is the most notable non-conference game of the season for both the Big 12 and SEC.
The Watergate complex was still under construction the last time Ohio State played in Eugene. Their first meeting since the 2014 national championship (and first regular-season meeting since 1987), Oregon and Ohio State is the novelty on-campus game of the season.
Also, Penn State and Virginia, separated by 370 miles, will play for the first time ever in the first half of a home-and-home series originally scheduled for 2022 (State College) and 2025 (Blacksburg) but was moved up to this season. And Pittsburgh and Marshall, separated by just 280 miles, will play for the second time ever, four years after the first half of the home-and-home was played in Pittsburgh.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Florida State at Boise State | Boise, Idaho |
| 3 | Colorado at Texas A&M | College Station, Texas |
| 3 | NC State at Troy | Troy, Ala. |
| 3 | South Dakota State at Nebraska | Lincoln, Neb. |
Announced in 2013, the Florida State-Boise State home-and-home series was scheduled for Tallahassee in 2019 and Boise in 2020. In 2016, they moved the Tallahassee game to Jacksonville, though Hurricane Dorian forced the first-ever meeting back to Tallahassee.
The first Power Five opponent for new head coach Karl Dorrell, Texas A&M hasn't hosted Colorado since 2008, the seventh of eight meetings as Big 12 members from 1996-2011. A third former Big 12 member, Nebraska, hosts FCS national-title contender South Dakota State in a critical game for Scott Frost. And Troy has a rare Power Five home game.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Oklahoma at Army | West Point, N.Y. |
A Big 12 Media Days video of Sam Bradford and Jermaine Gresham is atop The Oklahoman webpage for the announcement of this Oklahoma-Army home-and-home series, announced in August 2009. Eleven years later (and two years after the overtime beauty in Norman) the Sooners will make their first-ever visit to Michie Stadium to close out the two-game series.
It'll be Army's first home game against a Big 12 opponent since hosting both Baylor and Iowa State in 2005.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Notre Dame vs. Wisconsin | Madison, Wisc. |
You did it again, Wisconsin. Four years after playing LSU at Lambeau Field in the novelty game of the 2016 season, you made a neutral-site game the novelty of the 2020 season. The Badgers and Irish were frequent opponents decades ago but, despite their proximity (240 miles), haven't played since 1964.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Clemson at Notre Dame | South Bend, Ind. |
Notre Dame visited Clemson for the monsoon game of 2015 (one year after the Irish and ACC announced a scheduling agreement) and they met in the 2018 Cotton Bowl, a 30-3 playoff shellacking. So, with their 2020 game, they will have played in three of the last six years, or far from a novelty. Nonetheless, it's still just their fourth-ever regular-season matchup and first in South Bend since 1979.
| Week | Game | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | BYU at Stanford | Stanford, Calif. |
BYU gets around in the Pac-12—three Pac-12 games in each of the last two years—but Stanford hasn't been on the dance card since 2004, the second half of home-and-home, a two-year series that accounts for all two of their all-time meetings.
Their Week 13 game was supposed to be the first game in a four-game series, though that series was recently extended to eight games.
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