Week 1: Thursday GameThread

IT'S BACK.

The Big Ten opens up the college football season tonight with Michigan taking on Utah and TCU taking on Minnesota.  Don't worry guys, the entire pregame show for Michigan and probably the entire game will feature analysts that I do not yet know stumbling their way through praising Harbaugh.  There will be scant mention of an actual game occurring while they sing his praises.  Yes, let's just prepare now.  Anyways, to the games!

Michigan at Utah (-5.5) || 8:30pm ET || Fox Sports 1

Michigan gets to open the Big Ten football season by traveling to Utah to take on a team who finished 9-3 in the Pac 12 last year. Michigan comes in as 5.5 point underdogs against a team who lost both coordinators and has some serious youth issues at WR and in the secondary. Ouch. I don't think Vegas likes the Harbaugh factor as much as the announcers of this game are going to.

TCU at Minnesota (+14.5) || 9:00pm ET || ESPN

The bigger game of the night puts the nations Number 2 team, TCU, against Minnesota in a rematch of last season's non-conference battle.  TCU is fresh off of being snubbed by the playoff committee in its first year while Minnesota is coming off of a very good season themselves.  Who is going to replace David Cobb to keep Minnesota's running game going? Can Minnesota actually do something that resembles a passing attack now that Maxx is gone?

Normal rules apply! Since it's the first game thread of the year, a refresher: no illegal streams posted, no illicit photographs and keep it civil(ish).