Three College Football Weekends Among most Popular Wedding Dates

Credit: And the Valley Shook

By Tucker Harlin

Fall weddings are a controversial topic.

To some, fall weekends are a pleasant time of year for apple picking, pumpkin patch roaming, and outdoor weddings.

To many, fall weekends are football time.

Most sane college football fans will tell you they despise fall weddings because they rip fans away from watching their team in important games.

They intentionally schedule their weddings during the summer or winter for that very reason.

The Knot, a wedding registration website, recently released a list of its top five most popular wedding dates in 2024 according to its users. Three of these are during football season.

Let’s start with the most popular date of the year, September 21.

September 21

Many teams across the country will be opening conference play September 21.

Weddings in Oklahoma will be frowned upon as two particularly important conference openers will be played by teams in the Sooner state that day.

Both Tennessee at Oklahoma and Utah at Oklahoma State are ranked matchups ahead of the season. Both are also matchups between brand new conference foes.

NC State at Clemson and USC at Michigan are the other two ranked matchups that weekend.

September 14

With conference realignment came the pivoting of important rivalries to early portions of the season, particularly on the west coast.

The Apple Cup in Washington and what was once referred to as the “Civil War” in Oregon are both set to be played on The Knot’s second most popular wedding date.

There are several conference openers that weekend and many power four non conference matchups, many of which feature SEC teams.

October 12

October 12 is the fifth most popular date on this list and possibly the worst wedding date for a college football fan to attend.

By this point in time, conference play is well underway and some of the most important regular season matchups will occur.

Ole Miss at LSU, Oklahoma versus Texas, Florida at Tennessee, and Mississippi State at Georgia are among the most important matchups in the SEC.

Elsewhere, the Big 10 has two ranked matchups that feature teams new to the conference, including a preseason top three matchup between Ohio State and Oregon.

Perhaps the worst weekend for a college football fan to be taken away from their TV to go to a wedding.