[Nick]

GAME OF THE WEEK:
Who to watch in college football this weekend

(Ed. note: Each week we take a look at the best games and players to watch in nationally televised college football games with an eye toward the 2007 draft.)

August 31-September 2

While the NFL wraps up the pre-season this weekend, the college season kicks off with a number of intriguing games on the schedule. The big game on the college board, of course, is what is turning out to be the annual early season ACC shoot-out between Miami and Florida State on Monday. We'll be back Monday morning with a special preview on who to watch in that one.

Meanwhile, pro scouts will no doubt be trekking to Columbus on Saturday afternoon when Ohio State hosts Northern Illinois (3:30 PM ET; ABC regional). There will be plenty of chances this fall to scout Ohio State - see next week’s monster game versus Texas - so the player pro scouts really want to see in this one is NIU OT Doug Free (#62, 6-6, 305), arguably the most athletic LT prospect to come along in a while. The Huskies also feature one of the most explosive backs in college football in RB Garrett Wolfe (#1, 5-7, 175), although he isn’t very big.

In fact, the great thing about many early season games is that while they may resemble blow outs on the scoreboard, they give draft watchers a chance to look at players from unfashionable programs going against quality opposition. That's the case later tonight, for example, when Boston College opens the season with a visit to Central Michigan (6 PM ET; ESPN2) where a national audience will get a rare chance to see a couple of very good CMU prospects in DE Dan Bazuin (#93, 6-3, 270), the leading returning sacker in college football, along with OT Joe Staley (#73, 6-5, 300) one of the more athletic LT prospects in the country.

The NFL draft has historically been pretty much dominated by BCS schools, however, there appears to be growing parity in college football. And two of the better draft classes outside the ranks of BCS programs will be on display Friday night when #19 (on our pre-season ranking of 2007 draft classes) Fresno State hosts #24 Nevada (10:00 PM ET; ESPN2). The Bulldogs, for example, are anchored by C Kyle Young (#59, 6-5, 330), arguably the top-rated prospect at the position for the upcoming draft. Fresno State also has a number of very good second-tier prospects including junior RB Dwayne Wright (#32, 6-0, 220), WR Paul Williams (#1, 6-1, 210), CB Marcus McCauley (#17, 6-0, 205), LB Dwayne Andrews (#51, 6-0, 240), and run-stuffing DT Louis Leonard (#98, 6-3, 330). Meanwhile, Nevada will be led by a very good second-tier QB in rangy Jeff Rowe (#3, 6-5, 220), while CB Joe Garcia (#23, 5-11, 185) is an underrated cover corner and DE/LB J.J. Milan (#91, 6-5, 265) is a disruptive edge rusher.