Welp, here we are. The 2025-26 college football season is officially nearly us, and while most fans are gunning for the loaded slate that Week 1 has to offer, that doesn’t mean “Week 0” fails to bring something to the table.
I mean, gosh, the headliner of the week is actually a nationally relevant rivalry known as “Farmageddon” (the battle between Big 12 powers Kansas State and Iowa State). With both of those teams being consistently formidable and their conference being anyone’s game this year, that is undeniably one ideal for circling on the calendar.
But despite that game’s tendency to steal the show, it isn’t the only one that can provide fans with a good time. In fact, there’s another matchup in Week 0 that I see being no less competitive, and that’s the Stanford Cardinals at Hawaii.
Sure, it doesn’t quite hold the same vibes as your average pairing of fierce foes, and it sure as heck doesn’t hold a single ounce of relevance in the playoff race, but if you’re going through months-long CFB withdrawal and are looking for the best games possible, this duel deserves a seat at the table.
With just 12 wins over the past four seasons, the Stanford Cardinals have been hands-down the worst Power 4 team in football throughout recent memory. As for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, they haven't been as numerically poor as Stanford, but they’ve suffered a long bowl game drought of their own over the past few years—and that, of course, has been done while facing primarily smaller competition.
With circumstances like those, these two snake-bitten programs seem doomed to produce one of the most beautifully hideous slugfests known to mankind, but for Week 0? That equates to an instant classic worth gluing yourself to the couch for.
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