Don't cry because it's (almost) over, smile because it happened. That's the mantra that college football fans should be saying to themselves as we have only about a month of the 2023 season remaining before conference championship games and then, of course, bowl season, all leading to the College Football Playoff.

The good news, though, is that we're getting college football goodness delivered to us virtually every single night for that span, with the exception of Sundays and Mondays. While still waiting on the always-popular midweek MACtion to begin, Conference USA has stepped up earlier in the year and up to now with providing some early-week games to whet fans' appetites.

So which college football games are on tonight to get Week 9 started on Tuesday? Let's take a look at the schedule with a pair of matchups that should definitely pique your interest.

College football schedule tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 24

Tuesday night's college football slate will get started with New Mexico State going on the road to face Louisiana Tech. The Aggies are 5-3 overall but have just one loss in CUSA play to this point, making Jerry Kill's team extremely live to make some noise and possibly make the conference championship game.

But don't let the Louisiana Tech record of 3-5 fool you entirely. The Bulldogs are 2-2 in CUSA play this season, but are heading back home on Tuesday after a two-game skid. They'll be looking to snap out of that losing streak with one of the better defenses in the conference that will have to limit Diego Pavia and the NMSU offense that can be multi-faceted and ultra-efficient at times.

The headliner for the Tuesday night CFB slate, however, will be the Liberty Flames, one of only nine remaining undefeated teams in FBS entering Week 9, going on the road to face an always-feisty Western Kentucky Hilltoppers team.

Liberty QB Kaidon Salter has been magnificent this season and has proven to be a perfect fit in new head coach Jamey Chadwell's option-style offensive attack. But the Flames have proven to be susceptible defensively and overall at times, including fighting tooth-and-nail last week to get past Middle Tennessee on the road in a 42-35 shootout.

So that makes a trip to Bowling Green to play Western Kentucky extremely tricky. Austin Reed and the Hilltoppers have not been the same prolific offense we've seen in recent years consistently in 2023, but they are still dangerous at times as well. Playiing at home in front of an underratedly good crowd, they could give the Flames all they can handle and threaten to hand Liberty its first loss of the year.