Folks, you made it. College football is back.Well … sort of.Eight FBS games will be played Saturday, five days before the season is ordinarily allowed to begin. One will take place 3,000-plus miles from U.S. soil, with North Carolina and TCU meeting in Dublin. Another, featuring NC State and Virginia, was supposed to be played in Rio de Janeiro, before plans fell apart and the game was moved to Charlottesville, Va. The other six stretch from Los Angeles to Tallahassee and seem to have little in common.There is, however, a rulebook explanation connecting all eight games — and this is the last season it’ll work this way.College football's Week 0 explainedIra GorawaraWhat exactly is Week 0?“Week 0” is not an official NCAA term. It’s shorthand for the weekend before the traditional opening week of the college football season.Every Week 0 game falls under one of three mechanisms: foreign competition, the “Hawaii exception,” as it’s colloquially known or a waiver.The foreign-competition exception is the simplest. UNC and TCU qualify because they’re playing a regular-season game abroad. Teams that use it must give their players five additional days off during the season, compensating for the fact that an earlier opener also means reporting for preseason camp earlier.Then there’s Hawaii, which is responsible for six of Saturday’s eight games.Teams that play a regular-season game at Hawaii can start early, an exception designed to accommodate the trip to Honolulu. Hawaii is eligible under the same rule, giving the Rainbow Warriors — and Saturday opponent Stanford — the same option.San Jose State, North Dakota State, Sacramento State, New Mexico State and UNLV will all visit Hawaii this season, clearing the way for Week 0 games against USC, Jacksonville State, Eastern Michigan, Florida State and Memphis, respectively.The eighth game, NC State-Virginia, required a waiver. More on that shortly.Why do schools want to play early?On fall Saturdays, dozens of FBS games compete for attention. This Saturday, there are just eight.Television sees the same opportunity. Kurt Dargis, ESPN’s senior director of programming and acquisitions, called Week 0 essentially a “free Saturday,” with little competing football inventory. Historically, he said, schools and organizers initiate FBS Week 0 games; ESPN then programs them according to its media-rights agreements.John Anthony, co-founder of the Aer Lingus College Football Classic, the annual game in Dublin, said Week 0 initially helped teams minimize the disruption of an international trip.