Week 5 college football TV schedule and open thread

Today’s schedule has a lot of conference contests and some ranked-on-ranked action, including a pair of top-ten tilts.

The Florida Gators are playing in a somewhat unusual time slot today - 6:00 p.m., eastern - so you will have the opportunity to catch early games, a good portion of games with afternoon kicks, and likely the last quarter or so of this evening’s marquee night match-ups.

Feel free to hang out in this thread while watching any of today’s games.

Here are our picks for today’s viewing windows:

Early (12:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Eastern)

West Virginia at Texas Tech (12:00 p.m., ESPN2): This is pretty much your main viewing option in the noon slot. Will Grier (yes, I’m sorry) and the No. 12 Mountaineers are in Lubbock to take on the No. 25 Red Raiders. Both teams boast high-scoring entertaining offenses and are solid players in the early Big-12 race.

Syracuse at Clemson (12:00 p.m., ABC): The Seminole-conquering Orange travel to Clemson to take a shot with the No. 2 Tigers. If the first suggested game somehow goes awry early, it might be worth checking in on Trevor Lawrence’s first full game as Clemson’s starter, against a decent ACC team.

Arkansas at Texas A&M (12:00 p.m., ESPN): A very bad Razorbacks team is probably going to get torched by an angry Aggies squad coming off a lopsided loss to Alabama and yeah don’t watch this.

In other games: Also at noon, Louisiana will undoubtedly be getting rolled by Alabama (SECN). On paper, there really isn’t much else on.

Afternoon (3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Eastern)

Tennessee at Georgia (3:30 p.m., CBS): I’m not saying this will be a good game, or probably even a particularly entertaining one. These are two of Florida’s rivals and division-mates so this game is probably of some interest to UF fans, even if just as a measuring stick between the Bulldogs and Gators’ performances against the flailing Volunteers.

Pittsburgh at UCF (3:30 p.m., ESPNU): 3-1 Pitt comes to Orlando to put UCF’s nation-best win streak (16) to the test. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the No. 13 Knights yet this season, I can attest to the fact that they can be rather entertaining.

Florida State at Louisville (3:30 p.m., ESPN2): Remember a couple of years ago when the Cardinals took down the ‘Noles 63-20? Good times. This year, it’s a battle of struggling 2-2 teams. Louisville will hope to rebound at home after being trounced by Virginia last week.

In other games: There’s a bunch of meh games piled up in the afternoon slot - including Baylor at No. 6 Oklahoma (3:30 p.m., ABC), No. 18 Texas at Kansas State (3:30 p.m., FS1), and No. 14 Michigan at Northwestern (4:30 p.m., FOX).

The Gator Game (6:00 p.m., Eastern):

Florida gets an in-betweener time this week, falling at the tail end of the afternoon slot but before the evening slot. The Florida Gators are on the road against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN.

Evening (7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern)

Ohio State at Penn State (7:30 p.m., ABC): Maybe the game with the most playoff implications to date is upon us, as the No. 4 Buckeyes visit a “White-Out” at No. 9 Penn State. Both top-ten teams boast prolific offenses and will be riled up for a game with big conference and national stakes.

Stanford at Notre Dame (7:30 p.m., NBC): The evening slot has another top-ten game too, with the No. 7 Cardinal at the No. 8 Irish. This contest would get more pop if it wasn’t at the same time as Ohio State and Penn State, but this event could also potentially have playoff picture implications.

South Carolina at Kentucky (7:30 p.m., SECN): In conference, the surprising No. 17 Wildcats (ranked in the polls for the first time since 2007) host the Gamecocks. Undefeated Kentucky has actually bested South Carolina the last four seasons and is looking to extend that streak.

Ole Miss at LSU (9:00 p.m., ESPN): The No. 5 Tigers host the Rebels, a team with a lot of offense and not much defense. LSU has had the opposite issue.

In other games: The Pac-12 has several night contests, including No. 20 BYU at No. 11 Washington (8:30 p.m., FOX), No. 19 Oregon at No. 24 California (10:30 p.m., FS1), and USC at Arizona (10:30 p.m., ESPN2).

And here is your schedule table for today’s games.