Let’s see who the ranked teams are playing in college football this week.
18 ranked teams will be playing games this weekend across the college football landscape.
Week 5 will be the second week since the SEC began playing. We know the Big Ten will return at the end of the month and the Pac-12 at least plans to return as well. However, neither of those Power 5 conferences will have anything to do what happens on the college gridiron this weekend. Let’s take a look and find out when the ranked teams are playing and if they will on Saturday.
Here is the schedule for when all the ranked college teams are playing.
Friday, Oct. 2 (9:00 p.m. ET)
- Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at No. 22 BYU Cougars
Saturday, Oct. 3 (12:00 p.m. ET)
- South Carolina Gamecocks at No. 3 Florida Gators
- TCU Horned Frogs at No. 9 Texas Longhorns
- Missouri Tigers at No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers
- North Carolina State Wolfpack at No. 24 Pittsburgh Panthers
Saturday, Oct. 3 (3:30 p.m. ET)
- No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies at No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide
- No. 12 North Carolina Tar Heels at Boston College Eagles
- South Florida Bulls at No. 15 Cincinnati Bearcats
- No. 17 Oklahoma State Cowboys at Kansas Jayhawks
- No. 25 Memphis Tigers at SMU Mustangs
Saturday, Oct. 3 (7:30 p.m. ET)
- No. 7 Auburn Tigers at No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs
- Tulsa Golden Hurricane at No. 11 UCF Knights
- Arkansas Razorbacks at No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs
- No. 18 Oklahoma Sooners at Iowa State Cyclones
- No. 20 LSU Tigers at Vanderbilt Commodores
Saturday, Oct. 3 (8:00 p.m. ET)
- Virginia Cavaliers at No. 1 Clemson Tigers
Bold indicates projected winner.
I really went out on a limb this week and picked one favored team to lose. I think with the game being in Dallas and the SMU Mustangs getting off to a great start that it might be enough for them to knock off the No. 25 Memphis Tigers in the mid-afternoon window. The AAC has plenty of excellent teams, and it’s time we start to appreciate the fine program SMU has had of late.
As I do each week, I will give you a game or two in each viewing window on Saturday that I think where an upset could potentially occur. In the early window, keep an eye on the No. 9 Texas Longhorns to potentially come up short to the unranked TCU Horned Frogs. Keep in mind Texas needed overtime to beat the Big 12 bottom-feeder Texas Tech Red Raiders in Lubbock last week.
In the mid-afternoon window, though I already picked SMU to upset Memphis at home, keep an eye on the Boston College Eagles at home vs. the No. 12 North Carolina Tar Heels. Jeff Hafley is 2-0 in his first year on the job in Chestnut Hill. Though Mack Brown is a legendary coach with a great quarterback in Sam Howell, something about this game suggests it’ll be closer than we think.
And as for the night games, the answer for a potential upset is the No. 7 Auburn Tigers over the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs. Though Auburn doesn’t beat my alma mater in Athens these days, I can’t overlook how bad the quarterback play was on the road in Fayetteville last week vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks. If Bo Nix plays like he can, he might get a huge SEC road victory in Week 5 over UGA.
The only thing we know is at least one top-seven team will suffer its first defeat this weekend.
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