College football 2019: ABC announces first 3 primetime games

Today we learned how we’re spending our first three Saturday nights of the NCAA football season. ABC has three very good games to start their slate.

We are still more than three months away from the start of the college football season, but it’s never too early to start getting excited. ABC gave us our first reason to celebrate by releasing the first three Saturday night primetime games of the season.

https://twitter.com/ESPNPR/status/1128676488440684546

The first matchup might be one of the best of the season, pitting Oregon against Auburn in a Pac-12/SEC matchup on Aug 31 at 7:30 p.m. Justin Herbert returned to the Ducks and will be a Heisman Trophy candidate, while Auburn once again looks to get back into the good graces of the SEC. They will play on a neutral field at AT&T Stadium in Texas. It will be a rocking crowd, as both Ducks and TIgers fans travel well. Should be a great way to kick off the season.

The second Saturday night matchup of the year on Sept. 7 has two teams on the upswing. The LSU Tigers visit the Texas Longhorns. Texas was a surprise contender for the Big 12 last season after a few down years. Meanwhile, LSU went 6-2 in the SEC last season, and looks to build off some impressive wins last season, and avoid some of their embarrassing losses.

Then, in the third week of the season, the defending champion Clemson Tigers takes on Syracuse, who has played the Tigers as tough as anyone the last couple of years on Sept. 14. Clemson will be coming off a test the week before against Texas A&M so this could be a very interesting matchup.

This also points to where ESPN might be bringing College Gameday the first three weeks of the season. Obviously, it is way too early to start predicting who wins these games, but being able to see Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Sam Ehlinger and other great players in primetime to kick off the season, is a great way for fans to get excited about the 2019 season.