2021 – Week 5 Picks - Jacknife Sports

The calendar has flipped to October, which means we are getting into the heart of the college football season. The first weekend in October is not disappointing us either. It is a pretty loaded weekend of matchups with four pitting top 25 teams against each other, and even two top 10 matchups! Before we get to the matchups, we should acknowledge what a weird season this has been so far. The highest ranked team from the ACC is ranked #23 (AP Poll) - and it's not Clemson. In fact, Clemson isn't even the second highest ranked ACC team. NC State checks in at #23, Wake Forest is #24, and then Clemson is ranked #25, which even that is surprising Clemson is even hanging on in the rankings with how they have looked this year. We thought Georgia's biggest game this month would be the annual World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. But it turns out they have to get through another top 10 team, Arkansas, before they can think about their rivalry game. In another top 10 matchup, Cincinnati travels to Notre Dame. Cincinnati is trying to become the first Group of 5 teams to crash the Playoff, and they need this win to have a chance. Alabama has to take on a #12 ranked Ole Miss team where Saban tries to keep his spotless record against former assistants. The other top 25 matchup is one no one thought would be a matchup of ranked teams - Baylor travels to Oklahoma State.

Beyond the top 25 matchups, this is the time of year that conference play starts to get into the thick of it. And you know what they say about conference/rivalry games - you can throw those records out the window. Oklahoma travels to Kansas State where the sooners are favored by double digits, but they also were favored like that the past 2 season when K-State beat them both times. Another team to keep an eye on isn't part of any conference, and that's BYU. They have rocketed up to #13 in the standings and would be in first place is the PAC 12 south right now if they were part of that conference. They have some games coming up against Boise and Baylor, so they still have some chances to make some noise in the Playoff picture.

There are less and less FCS teams showing up on schedules as we move forward, so it should be some solid weekends of viewing coming up.