2026 College Football Watch Guide – Week 6

Well done, Iowa City. It had been 20 years since College Game Day visited and that energy and excitement was on full display. Sure, the result of the game was pretty much the same as the one back in 2006, but forget what happened on the field for a moment. It was so much fun to see Iowa City and the University of Iowa be the center of the college football world.

College Game Day doesn’t hold the same appeal to me as it did just a few years ago. Maybe it was the departure of Lee Corso, or the persistent pro-SEC bias on display. But this was the first time I sat and watched almost an entire show Saturday morning.

Apparently, I wasn’t alone.

Casual football fans likely got their first glimpse of the Iowa campus and Kinnick Stadium, the Solon Beef Days Hay Bale Toss competition, and possibly even the Iowa Wave. It certainly made an impact on ESPN personality, Stanford Steve, who told of his first experience with the Wave in an emotional segment on Scott Van Pelt’s podcast. That’s before considering Game Day host Pat McAfee announced he’ll be donating $1,000,000 to the Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

Love him or hate him, this is an awesome gesture by Pat and a tremendous boon to the hospital. That’s the downstream effect of Game Day coming to your city. Fox’s Big Noon kickoff has been to Iowa City more recently, and more frequently, but College Game Day is still the nation’s premier pregame show and it was awesome to see Iowa front and center.

Let’s move on to week 6 and what we can look forward to. Schedule graphics are courtesy of Projection Sports by Tyler Markley.

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Thursday offers the usual mid-major action from the Sun Belt (South Alabama @ Arkansas State), American (South Florida @ UTSA), and C-USA (Missouri State @ Western Kentucky). Friday night is where power four play begins with the four best conferences on display: the Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, and Pac-12.

Both the Hawkeyes and Cyclones kick off Friday night starting with #20 Iowa @ Washington. All signs point to an extremely limited role – if any at all – for Hank Brown, so we may get to see a full game of Jeremy Hecklinski. Iowa has a chance to win its first regular season game in the Pacific time zone since 1987 over Arizona.

The Cyclones, meanwhile, have a late night date with some Cougars in Iowa State @ #8 BYU. Iowa State won a thriller over West Virginia last weekend with Aiden Flora accounting for three touchdowns alone. He’ll be needed against the #8 team in the country, as BYU is ranked 21st in total defense and 9th in rushing defense.

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Someone’s getting their first loss of the year in #7 Indiana @ Nebraska. The Cornhuskers have ripped through an underwhelming schedule but it gets harder after this week, with trips to Oregon and Iowa in the back half with Ohio State sandwiched in between. The two QBs in this game have combined for 28 touchdowns, 2243 yards, and only two interceptions.

It’s a big weekend in the SEC with three important games, two of which are big rivalries. Texas A&M @ #14 Missouri features a newly ascendant Tigers squad fresh off a dominant 45-17 win over Florida. It catapulted them from barely inside the top 25 to inside the top 15. This could be a tricky spot for Mizzou, as they’ll have to avoid a letdown game against the Aggies who could very much steal the win in Columbia.

In the afternoon we get the Red River Rivalry, #1 Texas @ Oklahoma. This year’s rivalry looks to be more lopsided than in years past, with the Longhorns coming off a bye and the Sooners at .500 on the year. Still, it’s one of the best rivalries in sports so that alone earns it a spot.

But the undisputed game of the week is #2 Georgia @ #6 Alabama. Both teams have torn through the first half of their seasons with hardly a challenge, the closest being Bama’s 50-36 win over Florida State. Neither team plays current top team Texas, but those Longhorns have a rough stretch ahead of them after this week with five straight games against AP ranked teams. Whoever wins in Tuscaloosa this weekend may have a leg up on the entire SEC race.

Not to be outdone by their neighbors to the southeast, the Big Ten has some anticipated games of its own on Saturday. It starts with a big one in #21 UCLA @ #13 Oregon at 2:30. The Bruins are a surprise riser in the rankings, off to their first 4-0 start since 2023, and their first such start under a first year head coach since 1949. The Ducks will still be without quarterback Dante Moore who suffered a terrifying concussion against USC. In his absence is Nebraska transfer and Family Dollar Patrick Mahomes, Dylan Raiola. He handled himself well in relief duty, going 19/25 for two touchdowns.

The Big Ten’s NBC night game will be the white out in Happy Valley for #19 USC @ Penn State. The Nittany Lions have given the Iowa and Iowa State fanbases a shared schadenfreude as Matt Campbell’s team is 0-2 in Big Ten play. Is that his team not being as good as we thought, or Wisconsin and Northwestern being better? Regardless, USC will certainly be a tougher challenge than either, so Campbell will need that white out crowd to bring it Saturday night.