Week 1 of football season belongs to SEC, not B1G

As a rule, I don't follow the words of Kurt Cobain as a manual for life. His songs kind of, you know, bum me out. But one of his lyrics has always stuck in my mind. Namely:

Here we are now, entertain us

OK, I also relate to the following line.

I feel stupid and contagious

But mostly it's that deal about wanting to be entertained. And so it is that I happened to see the Week 1 schedule for college football. And holy Mason-Dixon Line, it's an SEC smorgasbord and a Big Ten bread line.

Here are the four best Aug. 29-31 matchups in the SEC:

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech in Atlanta

LSU vs. TCU in Arlington, Texas

Mississippi State vs. Oklahoma State in Houston

Georgia at Clemson

The SEC plays a whole lot of tomato cans in nonconference "competition,"  but it sure knows how to come out of the chute.

Meanwhile, the Big Ten's four best games of Aug. 29-31 are, in my opinion, the following:

Penn State vs. Syracuse in East Rutherford, N.J.

Northwestern at California

Purdue at Cincinnati

Northern Illinois at Iowa

I'm serious. Those are the four. While Alabama, LSU, Georgia and Mississippi State are all putting unbeaten-status on the line in Week 1 and away from their home stadiums, Ohio State is hosting Buffalo, Michigan is hosting Central Michigan, Michigan State is hosting Western Michigan, Nebraska is hosting Wyoming, and Wisconsin is hosting Massachusetts.

Way to take yourself out of the news in Week 1, Big Ten.

You kind of get the feeling the SEC made a conscious effort to start the season with a bang. Which is smart.

I'd say the Big Ten has saved its nonconference doozies for later, and it's true. But there aren't that many. We have Notre Dame at Michigan, Michigan State at Notre Dame, UCLA at Nebraska, Wisconsin at Arizona State, maybe Ohio State at California if Cal is any good ... and that's about it.

As I've written before here, Big Ten teams have lined up a lot of compelling home-and-home nonconference series for future years. Ohio State will play Oklahoma and Oregon. Michigan will play Arkansas and Virginia Tech. Nebraska will play Miami, Tennessee, and in 2021 and 2022, Oklahoma. Wisconsin will play Virginia Tech twice, and Alabama once.

That's good. Credit to those programs for scheduling those games. But this year is a drought, especially in Week 1. Even on Thursday night, Aug. 29, the SEC has the Big Ten crushed. South Carolina opens at home against North Carolina, and there's a conference game pitting Mississippi and Vanderbilt. In the Big Ten, it's UNLV-Minnesota and Indiana State-Indiana.

Here we are now, entertain us. On Week 1, the SEC will be doing that. The Big Ten? Well, maybe that Northwestern-Cal game on ESPN 2 (9:30 p.m., Central time) will be the show-stopper of the day. But the smart money is on Georgia-Clemson. Or LSU-TCU. Or Alabama-Virginia Tech. Or Mississippi State-Oklahoma State.