Last week’s Alabama–Georgia game is a tough act to follow, and, to be blunt, the Week 6 college football schedule doesn’t have anything close to that on this week’s slate. On paper, this looks like a forgettable week, but this sport has a way of finding drama in unexpected places.
The only top-25 matchup of the week has No. 9 Missouri opening as a small underdog at No. 25 Texas A&M.
The Tigers are coming off a bye week, and the week before, they needed double overtime to beat Vanderbilt. Mizzou and Texas A&M moved from the Big 12 to the SEC together in 2012, and through a schedule quirk as a result of that, Missouri actually played in College Station three years in a row from 2010-2012. Missouri has won three of the last four meetings in College Station and seven of 10 against the Aggies since the turn of the millennium. A&M is favored by 1.5 points as of Monday morning.
It’s weird seeing that as arguably the marquee game of the week, but there are other games that could turn interesting, especially from a betting perspective. ESPN’s “College Gameday” is headed to Berkeley for the first time ever to see Cal host Miami. This game has a late kickoff, which means the show will begin airing at 6 a.m. locally on the West Coast, 13 1/2 hours before the game kicks off. Miami is currently favored by nearly two touchdowns.
The Hurricanes barely escaped Virginia Tech on Friday thanks to a replay review overturning a Virginia Tech Hail Mary on the last play of the game. The Golden Bears won at Auburn earlier this season and are coming off a bye week, but are Florida State’s only win this season. Can Cal do what Virginia Tech nearly did and knock off Cam Ward’s Hurricanes?
Elsewhere, Michigan is a 3-point underdog at Washington in a rematch of the national title game from a year ago. The Huskies are so different from last year’s squad. Kalen DeBoer made the move from Seattle to Tuscaloosa to coach Alabama, and most of the starters from that team are gone. Washington is just 3-2, but Michigan has a combined 118 passing yards over the past two games. It’s hard to imagine there being less hype around a national title game rematch, but here we are.
A whopping eight top-25 teams are on bye this week, which is contributing to the less exciting slate of games: No. 2 Texas, No. 13 LSU, No. 14 Notre Dame, No. 17 BYU, No. 18 Utah, No. 19 Oklahoma, No. 20 Kansas State and No. 24 Illinois.
Here are the odds and schedule for every game featuring an AP Top 25 team, plus a few other notable games in Week 6.
Odds update live and are from BetMGM. All kickoff times are Eastern. Rankings from the AP Poll. For information on streaming, click here.
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Friday, Oct. 4
Michigan State at No. 6 Oregon — 9 p.m. on ESPN
Syracuse at No. 25 UNLV — 9 p.m. on FS1
Saturday, Oct. 5
UCLA at No. 7 Penn State — Noon on FOX
No. 9 Missouri at No. 25 Texas A&M — Noon on ABC
SMU at No. 22 Louisville — Noon on ESPN
Boston College at Virginia — Noon on ACC Network
Pitt at North Carolina — Noon on ESPN2
Navy at Air Force — Noon on CBS
Iowa at No. 3 Ohio State — 3:30 p.m. on CBS
Auburn at No. 5 Georgia — 3:30 p.m. on ABC
No. 12 Ole Miss at South Carolina — 3:30 p.m. on ESPN
No. 23 Indiana at Northwestern — 3:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network
Rutgers at Nebraska — 4 p.m. on FS1
West Virginia at Oklahoma State — 4 p.m. on ESPN
No. 1 Alabama at Vanderbilt — 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
No. 15 Clemson at Florida State — 7 p.m. on ESPN
Utah State at No. 21 Boise State — 7 p.m. on FS2
No. 4 Tennessee at Arkansas — 7:30 p.m. on ABC
No. 10 Michigan at Washington — 7:30 p.m. on NBC
No. 11 USC at Minnesota — 7:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network
Baylor at No. 16 Iowa State — 7:30 p.m. on FOX
No. 8 Miami at Cal — 10:30 p.m. on ESPN
Texas Tech at Arizona — 11 p.m. on FOX
(Photo of Luther Burden III: Ed Zurga / Getty Images)
