The grand opening of the college football season has arrived.
There is only one game between two Associated Press Top 25 teams and that comes on Sunday night, with No. 24 Louisville facing No. 9 Mississippi in Music City. But Week 1 is filled with intrigue as a host of top teams kick things off with new coaches, new faces and high hopes. Oh, and major upheaval over eligibility. And jersey patches. Let's get into it!
Clemson at No. 11 LSU on Saturday night was always going to be a showcase game. Two teams that went 7-6 last season trying to get back in the national championship mix (LSU winning in 2019 and Clemson in 2018 seems so long ago), two outspoken coaches in Dabo Swinney and LSU's expensive new hire, Lane Kiffin.
The game took on a lot more meaning when the NCAA's new eligibility rules blew up in courtrooms all over the country and LSU made no secret of its interest in bringing back not just fifth-year players who went to court but players who had signed professional contracts in the NFL's preseason. The issue lingered late into the week, including the surreal spectacle of the SEC battling LSU in multiple courtrooms.
Who suits up or doesn't on Saturday night in Death Valley (the LSU version) will be as interesting as the final score.
There is no way around it: This year's Week 1 is light on marquee games and you can expect a lot of lopsided results. No. 1 Ohio State is favored by more than 50 points in its opener against Ball State. No. 6 Indiana (vs. North Texas), No. 8 Texas A&M (vs. Missouri State) and No. 10 Oklahoma (vs. UTEP) are each picked to win by more than 40. Even No. 22 Iowa, a grinder program if ever there was one, is favored by 31-plus against Northern Illinois.
But look, it's college football. Already this week, UMass — the only winless team in the Bowl Subdivision last season — went into Rutgers as a 29 1/2-point underdog and shocked the Scarlet Knights with a comfortable 37-21 win to end a 16-game skid. And Colorado, coming off a 3-9 season, escaped Georgia Tech in a 14-13 thriller by blocking a field-goal attempt with no time on the clock.
Notre Dame’s CJ Carr and Texas star Arch Manning are the preseason front-runners for the Heisman Trophy. Carr figures to get the tougher opening test against Wisconsin, and he gets a Sunday night spotlight to do it. Manning and the fifth-ranked Longhorns face Texas State. Don't be surprised if the top-ranked Buckeyes have two guys in the Heisman mix with QB Julian Sayin and star WR Jeremiah Smith back to chase a title.
Speaking of experienced firepower: Gunner Stockton is back at QB for Georgia, which somehow seems under the radar as a third-ranked team. So are Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss and Marcel Reed at Texas A&M.
— No. 2 Oregon opens at home against Boise State as 24.5-point favorites, but the Broncos have some playmakers and lost by only 3 points in Eugene the last time these teams met in 2024.
— No. 23 Houston vs. Oregon State. Texas Tech and BYU tend to get the headlines as the favorites in the Big 12 Conference, but the Cougars won 10 games last season and have a bunch of players back led by QB Conner Weigman (2,705 yards and 25 touchdowns passing) and the addition of RB Makhi Hughes behind an experienced line.
— Auburn vs. Baylor in Atlanta. An SEC-Big 12 crossover game between two teams that could really use good news after both going 5-7 a year ago. Auburn brought in former USF coach Alex Golesh to give it a try and Baylor's Dave Aranda remains under pressure heading into his seventh season.
— Tulane at Duke. We last saw Tulane in the College Football Playoff, losing to Ole Miss. Is there any magic still there after coach Jon Sumrall left for Florida? Duke, you may recall, won the ACC title game, didn't go to the CFP and then lost 15 starters.
This is the longest weekend of the season in a good way with major college football games Thursday through Monday night. The Sunday lineup includes a weirdly early Apple Cup between No. 17 and Washington State before prime-time showdowns: No. 4 Notre Dame against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and No. 9 Mississippi against No. 24 Louisville in Nashville, Tennessee. The Labor Day capper sees Mike Norvell and Florida State hosting No. 19 SMU and dynamic quarterback Kevin Jennings.
The next AP Top 25 rankings to sort it all out will be released Tuesday.
Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP’s full college football coverage here
Missouri wide receiver Cayden Lee, left, scores past Arkansas-Pine Bluff defensive back Na'il Johnson (38) during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
The Colorado team celebrates a win over Georgia Tech after an NCAA college football game, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has spent 20 months promising that America was on the cusp of an economic boom. But Friday's surprisingly positive jobs report ultimately provoked frustration from Trump.
The August job numbers might have been a welcome break from after months of sluggish hiring and concerns about inflation that have been weighing on Trump and his party two months from Election Day. But speaking from the Oval Office, Trump instead launched into a grievance session about inflation and interest rates. His anger was aimed at the financial markets, the Federal Reserve and U.S. trade partners. He objected to the commonly accepted notion in economics that the surprise gain of 162,000 jobs in August could contribute to inflationary pressures.
“Success does not cause inflation. Stupidity causes inflation,” Trump vented in the Oval Office, as he declared it “crazy” that the stock markets fell Friday on inflation concerns.
The combination over his second term of a drop-off in hiring and higher prices has dogged Trump and his pledge to instantly unleash historic levels of growth. “When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand new Trump economic boom,” Trump said at an August 2024 rally in North Carolina. But so far, the economy has grown at roughly 2% annually, slower than the gains during the Biden administration.
Trump blamed his inability to deliver stronger growth on higher interest rates for U.S. government debt, saying on social media that America could retaliate by stopping trade with foreign countries. Rates have been climbing in response to persistently high inflation fueled by Trump’s tariffs and oil shortages from the Iran war. The national debt has now crossed the daunting threshold of $40 trillion and rates on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note on Friday rose to 4.79%.
As the promised growth has yet to materialize, the president has lost some of the public's trust in his ability to steer the world's largest economy. His own policies have enabled, in part, the inflation and high interest rates that he wishes to blame on others.
“The administration’s credibility on growth, inflation, rates, debt and deficit dynamics have taken a hit given the outsized predictions that are not aligned with economic reality,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM US.
If the Fed did as Trump wanted and cut its benchmark rate so that more money could flow into the U.S. economy, the potential influx of cash could make inflation even worse and only add to his political and economic headaches.
But the president disputed this foundational concept in monetary policy. He said Friday that gross domestic product would grow at “12, 13, 14, 15%" if the rates were lower as he seemed to shrug off the inflation risks.
“We could have a GDP that would break every single record,” Trump said.
The president's approval rating on the economy was a lowly 32% in the middle of the summer, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. When Republicans were last facing midterm voters in 2018 under Trump, his economic approval rating was 50%.
Trump's threat to cut off foreign trade could endanger growth, further hurting his ratings. His recent levying of tariffs against Canada have become problems for Republicans in the Maine and Michigan Senate races.
Trump officials say their policies are working as intended. They say the development of artificial intelligence will lead to more productivity to boost growth. They say that last year's tariffs should ultimately bring more factory work to America, while Trump's tax cuts will create more business investment and his administration's efforts to identify fraud will create savings for taxpayers.
“I expect higher growth," said Christopher Phelan, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “We’re doing stuff to make good things happen.”
Phelan said recent job gains have been about two times larger than what's needed to match population growth. He considers it as entirely possible that productivity gains could push up overall growth for the next several years, even as he acknowledged that growth alone might not be enough to solve all of the country's financial challenges.
Because the costs of Social Security and Medicare are rising faster than revenues, growth alone is unlikely to meaningfully reduce budget deficits.
If U.S. economic growth could exceed 3% growth annually for the next decade, that would only be enough to stabilize the government's already high debt load, according to an analysis by Ernie Tedeschi, head of economic insights and research at Stripe, the financial technology company.
Tedeschi said he would be “thrilled” if AI could help to deliver those kinds of gains for 10 straight years, but history shows that growth that large due to advancements in computers were likely “wildly optimistic.”
“We should absolutely not be planning for the optimistic scenario," Tedeschi said.
Up until the president's comments about interest rates on Friday, the Trump administration has spent the past week trying to make voters feel more confident about the economy.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent specifically promoted the benefits of stronger growth at the G20 summit for finance ministers in North Carolina. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick did so as well as part of G20 meetings about innovation.
Still, Bessent told AP in an interview that he's also working with White House budget director Russ Vought to announce a plan to “bring down the level of the debt, deficit.”
There is political risk in trying to meaningfully reduce a year budget deficit of roughly $2 trillion that is slated to exceed $3 trillion a decade from now. Lowering the path of budget deficits would likely help with interest rates, but there could be political pain points in the form of spending cuts and tax hikes.
Brusuelas, the chief economist at RSM US, stressed that Trump would likely need to make sacrifices to meaningfully address the debt and reassure financial markets.
“We need a period of slower growth in government spending — that includes outright reduction in spending in addition to tax increases that all would reduce deficits and interest rates,” he said.
A gasoline station advertises its prices Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
