Who is playing college football today? Week 6 teams, channels and more

As the weather thinks about turning, we have more college football to watch. That's right! We are now officially into the second month of the season with it being October and all. With most of the non-conference games out of the way, we should be seeing a healthy helping of conference games to help decide the postseason picture. Nobody knows you better than yourself than your bitter rivals.

October is the best month on the sports calendar. You not only have postseason baseball, as well as basketball season about to start, but you are now entering the heart of football season, college or pro. The only downside to it being in the heart of conference play is you end up getting more and more teams on byes each week. Entering Week 6, there will be several ranked teams on their byes.

Here is who you will not be watching this week, as these teams are all on their byes for Week 6.

• No. 2 Texas Longhorns
• No. 13 LSU Tigers
• No. 14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
• No. 17 BYU Cougars
• No. 18 Utah Utes
• No. 19 Oklahoma Sooners
• No. 20 Kansas State Wildcats
• No. 24 Illinois Fighting Illini

It should be noted that there are two teams who are ranked No. 25 this week in the one-loss Texas A&M Aggies out of the SEC, as well as the undefeated UNLV Rebels out of the Mountain West.

Here is the entire Week 6 college football slate broken down by date, time, matchup and TV channel.

Thursday, Oct. 3

7:00 p.m. ET start time

• Texas State Bobcats at Troy Trojans (ESPNU)

9:00 p.m. ET start time

• Sam Houston Bearkats at UTEP Miners (CBSSN)

Friday, Oct. 4

7:00 p.m. ET start time

• Jacksonville State Gamecocks at Kennesaw State Owls (CBSSN)

7:30 p.m. ET start time

• Houston Cougars at TCU Horned Frogs (ESPN)

9:00 p.m. ET start times

• Michigan State Spartans at No. 6 Oregon Ducks (FOX)
• Syracuse Orange at No. 25 UNLV Rebels (FS1)

Saturday, Oct. 5

12:00 p.m. ET start times

• UCLA Bruins at No. 7 Penn State Nittany Lions (FOX)
• No. 9 Missouri Tigers at No. 25 Texas A&M Aggies (ABC/ESPN+)
• SMU Mustangs at No. 22 Louisville Cardinals (ESPN)
• Purdue Boilermakers at Wisconsin Badgers (BTN)
• UMass Minutemen at Northern Illinois Huskies (CBSSN)
• Boston College Eagles at Virginia Cavaliers (ACCN)
• Pittsburgh Panthers at North Carolina Tar Heels (ESPN2)
• Wake Forest Demon Deacons at North Carolina State Wolfpack (CW)
• Navy Midshipmen at Air Force Falcons (CBS/Paramount+)
• Army Black Knights at Tulsa Golden Hurricane (ESPNU)

1:00 p.m. ET start time

• Tulane Green Wave at UAB Blazers (ESPN+)

2:00 p.m. ET start time

• Western Michigan Broncos at Ball State Cardinals (ESPN+)

3:30 p.m. ET start times

• Iowa Hawkeyes at No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes (CBS/Paramount+)
• Auburn Tigers at No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs (ABC/ESPN+)
• No. 12 Ole Miss Rebels at South Carolina Gamecocks (ESPN)
• No. 23 Indiana Hoosiers at Northwestern Wildcats (BTN)
• Temple Owls at UConn Huskies (CBSSN)
• Virginia Tech Hokies at Stanford Cardinal (ACCN)
• Appalachian State Mountaineers at Marshall Thundering Herd (ESPN+)
• Miami RedHawks at Toledo Rockets (ESPN+)
• Bowling Green Falcons at Akron Zips (ESPN+)
• East Carolina Pirates at Charlotte 49ers (ESPNU)

4:00 p.m. ET start times

• Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Nebraska Cornhuskers (FS1)
• West Virginia Mountaineers at Oklahoma State Cowboys (ESPN2)

4:15 p.m. ET start time

• No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide at Vanderbilt Commodores (SECN)

6:30 p.m. ET start time

• Colorado State Rams at Oregon State Beavers (CW)

7:00 p.m. ET start times

• No. 15 Clemson Tigers at Florida State Seminoles (ESPN)
• Utah State Aggies at No. 21 Boise State Broncos (FS2)
• Old Dominion Monarchs at Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (ESPN+)
• South Alabama Jaguars at Arkansas State Red Wolves (ESPN+)
• James Madison Dukes at UL Monroe Warhawks (ESPNU)
• Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns at Southern Miss Golden Eagles (ESPN+)

7:30 p.m. ET start times

• No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers at Arkansas Razorbacks (ABC/ESPN+)
• No. 10 Michigan Wolverines at Washington Huskies (NBC/Peacock)
• No. 11 USC Trojans at Minnesota Golden Gophers (BTN)
• Baylor Bears at No. 16 Iowa State Cyclones (FOX)
• Nevada Wolf Pack at San Jose State Spartans (truTV/Max)

7:45 p.m. ET start time

• UCF Knights at Florida Gators (SECN)

8:00 p.m. ET start times

• Duke Blue Devils at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (ACCN)
• Kansas Jayhawks at Arizona State Sun Devils (ESPN2)
• Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at San Diego State Aztecs (CBSSN)

10:30 p.m. ET start time

• No. 8 Miami Hurricnes at California Golden Bears (ESPN)

11:00 p.m. ET start time

• Texas Tech Red Raiders at Arizona Wildcats (FOX)

Oregon and UNLV playing on Friday night is a good appetizer for the week ahead. While the Ducks and Rebels should win their games over Michigan State and Syracuse respectively, this is college football after all. Unfortunately, the Week 6 slate lacks a true must-watch game. The best game might be at 12:00 p.m. ET between Missouri and Texas A&M in College Station. That is all you need to know.

Although SMU at Louisville could be interesting in that window, you may want to turn your attention to the mid-afternoon slate. Ohio State hosts Iowa, Georgia hosts Auburn, South Carolina hosts Ole Miss and Northwestern hosts Indiana. The combination of one ranked team vs. an unranked one could set the table for a slew of upsets on the horizon. We did see Georgia and Ole Miss lose last week, though.

And to be fair, the same sort of principle applies to the night games. Arkansas hosts Tennessee, Washington host Michigan and Minnesota hosts USC. In what will be the signature game of the week, Cal will host Miami late in what may go down as the latest ACC game that you might actually have to watch from start to finish in the history of the conference. That game is going to be something else.

Be sure to plan your day accordingly because, believe it or not, you still have some games to watch.