Everybody’s talking about them. Yet no coach dares mention them for fear of “looking ahead.”

They’re the biggest games of the fast-approaching season.

Alabama’s Nick Saban, Florida State’s Jimbo Fisher and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer — among many others — have been prodded about their team’s earth-shaking showdowns, against the likes of Auburn, Notre Dame and Michigan State. And each time they’ve batted aside the question like Anthony Davis flicking a fly from his unibrow.

Not constrained by looking past opponents, here’s a gander at a college fan’s best days of the year:

August 30—Yeah, that’s right, the very first Saturday of the season is a banquet. Tucked in among Youngstown State-Illinois and UC Davis-Stanford are four games which might just impact the playoffs four months later.

Pick of the litter: Oklahoma State vs. defending national champion Florida State, at AT&T Stadium in the heart of Texas. Cowboys fans will flood the place in a deluge of orange, all wanting their Pokes to give 2013 Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston his comeuppance.

Sept. 6—The Playoff Era means very few more wasted days of Top-5 teams drilling weather-vane schools. Welcome to the new world of major-college scheduling.

Michigan State at Oregon. If you don’t like the color green, you might want to tune to a True Detective repeat.

Sept. 13/14—That’s right, the season’s only three weeks old and we’ve already locked up half the sport’s best weekends.

The Head Ballcoach might just have his best team ever at South Carolina. Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks get an early test at home against Georgia, which also has visions of bigger things. The game will revolve around which running back is the most productive: the Bulldogs’ Todd Gurley or South Carolina’s Mike Davis.

Oct. 11—The best games feature teams fighting for early superiority in the Pac-12 and Big 12.

Oklahoma vs. Texas in the Cotton Bowl, with Sooners coach Bob Stoops itching to shove aside a few bad memories in the Red River Rivalry. Also, Oregon at UCLA, a battle between Heisman-contending QBs Marcus Mariota of the Ducks and Brett Hundley for the Bruins.

Nov. 8—The math might not sound right, but the best of the Big Ten’s 14 teams battle in this marquee game.

Michigan State beat No. 2-ranked Ohio State to squelch the Buckeyes’ school-record 24-game winning streak last year in the conference title game. Quarterback Braxton Miller won’t get a chance at redemption after suffering a season-ending shoulder injury. Keep an eye on Spartans’ do-everything back, Jeremy Langford.

Nov. 29—Rivalry week isn’t just a clever marketing slogan.

They call it the Iron Bowl because the teams feel as if they’ve been hit with a bag of hammers after these old acquaintances get together. Auburn QB Nick Marshall and Alabama TB T.J. Yeldon figure to get all the attention, but it’ll be the rock-hard defenses which will likely decide this one, as always.