College football scheduling is as unusual as anything you'll see in sports. With contracts signed years in advance, it's often a roll of the dice as to whether a school will get what they signed up for. Take Texas for example - it's highly likely that when they agreed to play Louisiana in Week 1 "x" number of years ago, they didn't expect the Ragin' Cajuns to be ranked 23rd nationally and coming off a 10-1 season. On the opposite side, Notre Dame probably thought its Week 1 game against Florida State would be a top-10 or top-20 affair.
Still, as realignment talks heat up (again) and there are talks of mega-conferences, let's appreciate the rarity of a high-quality non-conference matchup. Here are the five best that are coming down the pike in 2021:
5) Iowa State @ Iowa (Sept. 11): A vastly underappreciated rivalry nationally, after having to take 2020 off the Cy-Hawk game is back with perhaps the highest stakes in the series' 125-year history. The Cyclones are ranked seventh in the preseason, the highest in school history. The Hawkeyes check in at 18th, though they have a difficult season opener to get through first in Indiana. If Kirk Ferentz's bunch can get through that stretch 2-0, it will skyrocket their national expectations for the rest of the year.
4) North Carolina @ Notre Dame (Oct. 30): Last year this was an ACC game, with the Irish pulling away in the second half for a 31-17 victory in Chapel Hill. Both teams are preseason top-10 units in 2021, and should still be highly ranked for this Halloween weekend affair in South Bend. The winner of this could all but guarantee a New Years' Six bowl bid should it take care of business with the rest of the schedule. UNC lost a ton of offensive weapons to the NFL, but still has a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback in Sam Howell. Notre Dame, meanwhile, has its usual loaded schedule full of games against ranked teams: USC, Wisconsin (the same school new Irish QB Jack Coan just transferred in from) and...
3) Cincinnati @ Notre Dame (Oct. 2): The Irish probably weren't expecting a top-10 opponent with a chip on its shoulder when this contract was signed. The Bearcats appear to have the best chance for a Group of Five team to make a playoff push - their preseason ranking of 8th is the highest for a G5 team in the playoff era, as most G5 teams struggle to crack the top-10 in November, let alone August. This is the back-end of a very important two-game stretch for Luke Fickell and company. A win at nationally ranked Indiana on September 18 is an absolute must. Do that and then, off a bye week, go to South Bend and pull off another victory, and the playoff talk becomes very, very real, with UCF on October 16th the only other real roadblock.
2) Oregon @ Ohio State (Sept. 11): Even before the newly announced Alliance forms, this game was already on the books. Last year the Buckeyes were supposed to go to Eugene before COVID-19 delayed that trip. The 2021 edition at the 'Shoe will feature the loaded skill players of Ohio State against an Oregon defense that boasts a likely top-three NFL Draft pick in Kayvon Thibodeaux. The Buckeyes could afford to lose this game, and it would likely be okay, assuming they still went 12-1, capped by a Big Ten championship.
The same cannot be said for the Ducks, who desperately need a top-5 win with lots of eyeballs on it (it's a noon Eastern kick) in a conference with a reputation crisis. In fact, fairly or unfairly, the Pac-12's 2021 reputation might be decided in Week 2. Colorado hosts Texas A&M (probably a loss, but will they compete?), Washington is at Michigan, and then the Ducks are in Columbus. Go winless, and it all but extends the league's playoff drought to five.
1) Georgia vs Clemson (Sept. 4 - in Atlanta): In the hierarchy of college football, there are playoff hopefuls - those on the fringes who need everything to go right to maybe have a shot - and then there are national title hopefuls. This is the latter, and it's going to be massively fun at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Clemson is a machine, and with DJ Uiagalelei taking the reins at quarterback there's very little drop-off expected from Trevor Lawrence.
For Georgia, it's a chance to prove they belong in the same conversation as the Clemsons, Alabamas and Ohio States of the world. In four games to end the year with JT Daniels at quarterback, the oft-maligned Georgia offense averaged over 40 points per game in a 4-0 finish to the year, including a come-from-behind bowl win against Cincinnati. The competition outside of Cincy wasn't the greatest (Mississippi State, South Carolina and Missouri), but a win over the Tigers would immediately validate the Bulldogs. The loser isn't out of the playoff race by any stretch, but the winner gets a huge step forward toward a national championship run.