Thursday gives us two good Group of Five games on ESPN and a look at the top of the men’s basketball poll. Meanwhile, Kentucky-Tennessee is two days away. All times Central.
- Kentucky at Tennessee is two days out. No. 6 Kentucky (7-1) at No. 13 Tennessee (6-2) in the CFP rankings, Saturday at 5:15 p.m. on ESPN. Our pick is already on the record: Tennessee -6.5, the Kentucky Hat Guarantee. Two more sleeps.
- UTSA at Florida Atlantic, 6:30 p.m., ESPN. UTSA is 7-1 and 4-0 in the American. FAU is 5-3 and hasn’t lost at home this year (4-0). Something has to give, and I think the Roadrunners are for real.
- James Madison at Southern Miss, 7 p.m., ESPN2. JMU is 7-2, Southern Miss is 3-5. Good teams win on the road on a Thursday night without drama. Let’s see if the Dukes are one.
- Wake Forest at No. 24 Vanderbilt, 5 p.m., ESPN2. Men’s basketball, SEC vs. ACC in the first week. Vanderbilt has to hold serve at home against a power-conference opponent.
- The top of the poll plays at 7 p.m. No. 1 Florida hosts Jacksonville on SEC Network+, and No. 2 Duke hosts Coastal Carolina on ACC Network. Neither should be close. If one is, that’s the story Friday morning.
No new picks from us on Thursday’s games. The five and the fade for Saturday are already up.
Follow along Thursday night on X @fiveandafade and Instagram. Schedules, records, rankings and TV from ESPN.
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Jeremy Durham is a sports columnist for TriStar Daily and the founder of Five and a Fade.
