We spend most of the offseason focusing on early non-conference games for obvious reasons. The games are played in the first few weeks, and the matchups don’t always happen every year. But those early games rarely are the ones upon which entire seasons turn.
The true pivot point games tend to happen in conference play, but they aren’t always rivalry games. Sometimes they’re a matchup of a league’s—or of a division’s—two best teams. Or sometimes they’re key divisional matchups made more pivotal by where they fall on the calendar. Today, we’ll examine some of the games that will define the 2018 season .