College Football Programming Planner – Week 1 2026

As we collectively gear up for our first full Saturday slate in 2026, the lack of football for the last 8 months might cause one to become overwhelmed with the bounty of games that are available to us in each time slot. What do I watch? What channel is it on? Do I get that channel? Is there a better game on? It all can be a bit much.

This weekly guide hopefully serves as an aid to that Saturday stress. Independent of personal bias, I’ve selected what games I would be watching at each time of the day. The factors I’ve used to determine those games include quality of teams, parity of teams, and other factors that contribute to the overall entertainment value of said game. For example, I have the Ohio @ Nebraska game on the agenda for this Saturday morning while #1 ranked Ohio State is on, and that’s mostly due to the fact that I think the former will be closer than people think and the latter will be an unholy massacre.

This schedule is of course a suggestion, and there are loads of games in each viewing window I cannot feature on here. I incorporated as many TV slots into the planner as I deemed feasible, but you likely have more or less (almost certainly less) than the 3 TVs I’m assuming. I also can’t personally tailor this guide to each and every one of you so plug in your favorite teams into the prime slots in the schedule as you please. That should always be your #1 priority.

If this is helpful for you, stay tuned to the blog as this programming planner will come out each week of the season at noon ET on Thursdays. Without further ado here’s my suggestion viewing calendar for week 1!