On the tube

Chomping at the bit here to get this season started. But there's been time for me, between watching Michael Phelps swim for gold medals, to come up with an early list of games I will (and will not) be watching. Oh, August 28, will you ever get here?

Note: All times Central.

I'm naming Wake Forest at Baylor (7 p.m., FSN) the highlight of D-I opening night, though Oregon State-Stanford (8 p.m., ESPN2) has a smidge of upset potential. (Remember USC last year.) Against Wake, we'll be able to see what Art Briles has managed to do with the Bears over the summer.

And the next night, I'm going to beg Ted to let us come over and watch the SMU-Rice (7 p.m., ESPN) game in HD. Full disclosure: I'm a total SMU homer. But, as we all know, June Cometh. (More thoughts on SMU and a C-USA rundown will be comething over the next week or so. Hopefully Jones will have a QB chosen by then.)

That Saturday morning, if you've got ESPN Gameplan, you can see what happens when June leaveth, as Hawaii visits Florida (11:30 a.m.). Thinking it'll be pretty much a repeat of the Sugar Bowl, when neither June nor Colt Brennan could keep up against Georgia. With neither a superstar coach nor a superstar QB, I'm afraid the Warriors are headed back to mediocrity.

The others:
East Carolina-VaTech (11 a.m., ESPN): Because it's fun to watch C-USA play real teams.
USC-Virginia (2:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2): Duh.
Appalachian State-LSU (4 p.m., ESPN): An App State upset couldn't happen two years in a row, could it?
Illinois-Missouri (7:30 p.m., ESPN): Illini play the biggest hoax on two legs.
Washington-Oregon (9 p.m., FSN): Satisfy that Pac 10 craving.