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Week 5 of the college football season is upon us and it's only just starting to get interesting as the week ahead should see the release of football schedules from the PAC-12, as well as the Mountain West and MAC. Those conferences all just opted-in last week with the PAC-12 looking to begin play on Nov. 7, while the Mountain West joins the Big Ten with an Oct. 24 start date. The MAC will kick off Nov. 4 with mid-week games. UMass is also putting together a schedule, while UConn, Old Dominion and New Mexico State remain out of the picture and have no plans to resurrect their programs for 2020.
This week, a 33-game slate begins on Friday night with Louisiana Tech at BYU and Wake Forest hosting FCS member Campbell.
Get the computer's pick of every game HERE. The picks are based on the Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com which posted tremendous records this past weekend of 22-5 in selecting outright winners, and 21-6 against the spread.
Saturday presents a second week of full SEC action on the heels of a telling week 1 that already saw defending national champion LSU come out of the gate with a loss. The top games to watch in that conference this week are Texas A&M at Alabama, and Auburn at Georgia. But we'll also get to see how LSU answers the bell when the Bayou Bengals visit Vanderbilt, and what quarterback K.J. Costello does for an encore for Mississippi State when the Bulldogs host Arkansas. Of course, Costello was 'The Dude" last week when he set the SEC record with 623 yards passing in the 44-34 upset of LSU.
The ACC has 4 head-to-head conference games, including Clemson's return from a bye week to host Virginia, and Virginia Tech visiting Duke after a short-handed but impressive win over N.C. State on Saturday. Miami, which throttled Florida State on Saturday night, has the week off while the Seminoles have a shot at tasting victory as they return home to face FCS member Jacksonville State.
The Big 12, which has largely been an enigmatic mess, has Oklahoma traveling to Iowa State as the Sooners look to rebound from a 38-35 upset loss at home to Kansas State. As for the Wildcats, they return home (where they lost to Arkansas State) to face Texas Tech which would-a, could-a, should-a upset Texas on Saturday. And speaking of Texas, the Longhorns might try to break out some defense when they host TCU. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State should have a walk in the park at Kansas while Baylor travels to West Virginia after leveling the Jayhawks over the weekend.
FAU will take another shot at playing their season-opener when the Owls host Charlotte this week. Covid problems meant FAU had to back out of a September 19 game at Georgia Southern, and this past weekend's USF game at FAU was canceled by what the schools called a "joint agreement" on Covid issues. The Owls opponent this week had to cancel their scheduled game at North Carolina this past Saturday.
Air Force will open play at Navy this Saturday and has Army on the schedule for November 7. Those were going to be the only games for the Falcons in 2020 until the Mountain West made its "opt-in" announcement last week.
Rice isn't presently scheduled to begin its season until October 24 while Temple opens October 10 at Navy. Houston's next scheduled game is October 8 at home versus Tulane.
UPDATE: A 35th FBS-FCS game was added on Monday when North Carolina announced a December 11th home game versus Western Carolina.
With that addition, 31 FBS teams will play a total of 35 games against FCS schools this season. Army has 3 such games on its schedule.
Only 3 such games were scheduled this past week with Campbell losing 52-21 at Appalachian State, Houston Baptist falling 66-38 at Louisiana Tech, and Stephen F. Austin losing 50-7 at SMU.
So far this season, the FBS schools are 18-0 in such matchups. That makes the FBS teams 1,453-127 (.920) since we began tracking this in 2003.
Last year, FBS teams were 111-3 (.974) in such games.
These were the FCS wins vs. the FBS in the previous 2 seasons:
August 29: Central Arkansas 35, Western Kentucky 28
September 7: Southern Illinois 45, Massachusetts 20
September 14: The Citadel 27, Georgia Tech 24 (OT)
August 29: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19
CLEMSON - Won 31 straight regular season games (FBS longest) games. Won 23 straight conference games (FBS longest). Won 24 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 13 straight true road games (FBS longest).
Last: Won 49-0 at home vs. FCS member The Citadel on Saturday, September 19.
Next: Hosts Virginia on Saturday, October 3.
NOTRE DAME, AIR FORCE - 8-game over-all winning streak leads nation.
Next: Notre Dame hosts Florida State on Saturday, October 10.
Air Force plays at home against Navy on Saturday, October 3.
LSU - Had 16-game over-all winning streak snapped, which was the FBS longest.
Last: Lost 44-34 at home to Mississippi State on Saturday, September 26.
Next: Visits Vanderbilt on Saturday, October 3.
ARKANSAS - Lost 10 straight overall (FBS longest among teams playing this Fall).
Last: Lost 37-10 at home to Georgia on Saturday, September 26.
Next: Visits Mississippi State on Saturday, October 3.
RUTGERS - Lost 21 straight conference games (FBS longest). Lost 13 straight road games (FBS longest)
Last: Lost 27-6 at Penn State on November 30, 2019.
Next: Season opener at Michigan State on Saturday, October 24.
UTEP - Ended 15-game losing streak to FBS schools.
Last: Won 31-6 at Louisiana-Monroe on Saturday, September 26.
Next: Visits Louisiana Tech on Saturday, October 10.
AKRON - Lost 17 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 8 straight home games (FBS longest).
Last: Lost 52-3 at home to Ohio on November 26, 2019.
Next: Akron, and all of the MAC, is sitting out the fall season.