On the tube: Early Week 6 edition

For some reason, there's a Tuesday night game this week -- with NFL Sunday and MNF tonight, no rest for the football fan in all of us. This week, I'll note not just the games I'm drooling over but also the ones that are taking on ever more importance.

Warmup of the week: I'm not going to predict an upset, but South Florida and West Virginia will be the teams to watch in the Big East. So, given the chance, I'll have them on. This week? Pitt visits the Sunshine State (6:30 p.m. Thursday, ESPN). Also Thursday, see if Oregon State can pull off a second upset in a row at Utah (8 p.m., Versus). To be honest, the rest of the mid-week games look pretty bad -- Florida Atlantic-Middle Tennessee (7 p.m. Tuesday, ESPN2), LaTech-Boise State (7 p.m. Wednesday, ESPN) and Cincinnati-Marshall (7 p.m. Friday, ESPN).

An ACC morning: Tough choice for that cup-o-joe game, but to see how the ACC fares against itself, tune in. Boston College visits NC State (11 a.m., ESPN Gameplan) to see who gets left at the bottom of the ACC Atlantic; Duke visits Georgia Tech (11 a.m., ESPNU) to see if they can outplay the triple option threat and keep pace with Virginia Tech. Put these into the "games that have significance" file.

I'm such a liar: So a couple weeks ago, I told you that I had written the Fighting Irish off and would never ask anybody to tune in to them again. Well, after seeing them dump on Purdue last weekend, I'm actually intrigued by the Stanford-Notre Dame game (1:30 p.m., NBC). One thing I really can't stand about watching these games -- besides the low production value that NBC brings -- is how homerish the broadcast team is.

Another one could bite the dust: Last week was a bad one for ranked teams, and if there's one game on Saturday that could become a major upset, I'd put my money on Texas at Colorado (6 p.m., FSN). You just never know what the Buffs are going to be able to pull off at home.

The rest:
Iowa-Michigan State (11 a.m., ESPN2): Still waiting for that Spartan Sputter.
Penn State-Purdue (11 a.m., ESPN): Can the Boilermakers ruin a perfect season?
Oklahoma-Baylor (11:30 a.m., FSN): Only because there's that chance. Razor thin, but, yes, I'm saying there's a chance.
Arizona State-Cal (2:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN Gameplan): Doubt it'll be on in Texas, but just an FYI, Jake.
Florida State-Miami (2:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2/ESPN Gameplan): A team from my least favorite football state will absolutely lose.
Kentucky-Alabama (2:30 p.m., CBS): Two undefeated SEC teams, only one of which has faced SEC opponents. Kentucky goes down big time, despite having allowed just 22 points all season.
Illinois-Michigan (2:30 p.m., ESPN2/ABC): Was last week a fluke, or has Rich Rod figured things out?
Ohio State-Wisconsin (7 p.m., ABC/ESPN Gameplan): A one-loss Big 10 team will knock the other out of conference title contention.
Oregon-USC (7 p.m., ABC/ESPN Gameplan): Ducks are overmatched, but so were the Beavers.
Missouri-Nebraska (8 p.m., ESPN): This one just reeks of a potential upset.

What's not on (yet) that should be:
A tossup here, and it all depends on how you like your teams to match up. There's awful Army at mediocre Tulane (2 p.m.), inconsistent South Carolina at Gator-killing Ole Miss (1 p.m.) and dreadful Texas A&M at an under-the-radar Oklahoma State (6 p.m.). Out of this set, I see a big win for Tulane, a typical low-scoring defensive battle with the SEC game and a bunch of sad, sad Aggies once the Cowboys get done with them.