No. 24 Louisville's matchup with No. 9 Ole Miss headlines Week 1 slate for ACC teams

Things to watch this weekend in the Atlantic Coast Conference:

No. 24 Louisville (0-0) vs. No. 9 Mississippi (0-0) in Nashville, Tennessee; Sunday, 7;30 p.m. ET (ABC)

Picked to finish third in the ACC, the Cardinals open with a marquee matchup against a top-10 Southeastern Conference opponent. They've won 28 games in coach Jeff Brohm's first three seasons while regularly appearing in the AP Top 25 poll, a run that included reaching the ACC title game in 2023.

This neutral-site contest will offer an early opportunity for the Cardinals to help their long-term hopes of making the 12-team College Football Playoff. Louisville has added Ohio State transfer Lincoln Kienholz at quarterback to an offense featuring running back Isaac Brown, the ACC rookie of the year in 2024 who played nine games last year due to injury.

Ole Miss played in last year's CFP.

No. 19 SMU (0-0) at Florida State (1-0), Monday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

The Mustangs are considered the top contender to preseason ACC favorite and seventh-ranked Miami. They start their season with a Labor Day trip to Tallahassee, where Mike Norvell’s Seminoles are picked to finish 11th in the league.

SMU opens the year with a Heisman Trophy campaign for quarterback Kevin Jennings, who helped the Mustangs reach the ACC title game in their 2024 debut season that included a trip to the first 12-team CFP.

Clemson (0-0) at No. 11 LSU (0-0), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ABC)

The battle of Tigers in Death Valley moves from last year's appearance in South Carolina ( LSU won 17-10 ) to Louisiana. While LSU is playing its first game under Lane Kiffin, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney is facing pressure to get the Tigers back among the national elite. The Tigers won two national titles and eight ACC crowns between 2015-24, but slid to 7-6 last year for their worst record since 2010.

Clemson is picked fourth in the ACC and is unranked in the preseason for the first time since 2011.

— Miami QB Darian Mensah. Mensah led Duke to last year's ACC championship before jumping into the transfer portal to land with the seventh-ranked Hurricanes, who reached last year's CFP title game and are picked to win their first ACC crown. Mensah, who threw for 3,973 yards and 34 touchdowns last year, makes his Hurricanes debut with Friday's cross-country trip to face Stanford (1-0).

— California QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. Sagapolutele had a strong freshman season, throwing for 3,454 yards and 18 touchdowns, then committed in December to return under first-year coach Tosh Lupoi. The Golden Bears open with an instate tussle against UCLA of the Big Ten on Saturday night.

Virginia Tech hosts VMI on Saturday to open James Franklin's coaching tenure. The Hokies have won three games twice in the previous four seasons. ... Syracuse carries an eight-game losing streak into the season, which started after quarterback Steve Angeli was lost to a torn Achilles tendon. Angeli is due to return for Saturday's opener against New Hampshire. ... Duke opens at home against Tulane with a new starting quarterback for the fourth straight year. The Blue Devils have gone from Riley Leonard (2023) to Maalik Murphy (2024) and Mensah last year, and now turn to San Jose State graduate transfer Walker Eget. ... North Carolina, N.C. State and Virginia have open dates after playing in Week Zero.

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FILE - San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget throws against Texas during the second half of an NCAA college football game in Austin, Texas, Sept. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Iran fired at Kuwait on Thursday as part of its retaliation for U.S. bombardments earlier in the week. Meanwhile, Israeli police said they arrested a settler allegedly involved in an attack on Palestinians last week.

Here’s a look at the latest developments in the Iran war and the wider Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Sirens sounded in Kuwait early Thursday, where air defenses intercepted missile and drones during a “blatant Iranian aggression,” the Ministry of Defense said on X.

It came after U.S. allies Bahrain and Jordan said their air defense systems also intercepted several Iranian air attacks Wednesday.

Fighting between the U.S. and Iran has increased this week after the U.S. hit Iranian rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, saying Iran was planning to use them to shoot mines into the waterway.

Authorities in Israel arrested an Israeli settler for his suspected role in an attack on a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank, according to a police statement Thursday.

The statement did not identify the suspect but said he was being held for questioning and that police would request to extend his detention.

The 19-year-old man is believed to have participated in a violent riot in the Palestinian village of Qusra on Saturday, in which settlers threw stones and barricaded themselves inside the home of one of the villagers. Police said they were working with Israel’s domestic security agency to investigate the incident and locate and detain more suspects.

The arrest followed weeks of incursions by Israeli settlers into Qusra, which is located south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. The settlers staged a siege of several Palestinian homes, including one owned by a Palestinian American man from Ohio. Their actions drew condemnations from U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

With his legacy on the line, Netanyahu is imploring his erstwhile allies to unite into larger parties that have a better chance of entering parliament.

A series of small, pro-Netanyahu parties are competing in the run-up to the Oct. 27 vote. But instead of strengthening the Israeli leader, these parties — including hard-line blocs led by polarizing Cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — risk weakening his chances for reelection by splitting the vote among Netanyahu’s base.

The election is largely a referendum on Netanyahu’s nearly uninterrupted 17-year rule and his handling of a turbulent period marked by mass protests, Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and nearly three years of war. A victory would mark a stirring comeback for the embattled leader, while a loss would likely end the reign of a man who has shaped Israeli politics for three decades.

Birds gather around litter on a beach as commercial vessels lie anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)