By now, everyone has had a chance to catch their breath after all the big games of Week 5 lived up to the hype. This week doesn’t have the depth of marquee headliners (few weeks do), but Miami going to Florida State with both teams competing in the ACC is a throwback treat.

Plus, Alabama tries to avenge last year’s loss at Vanderbilt, which heads to Tuscaloosa ranked and undefeated. That’s a heck of a sentence to be writing.

Elsewhere, there are a number of potential trap games for ranked teams. All of the power conferences have good games on tap, so let’s take a look around each of the four leagues, but first, here are our staff’s picks against the spread for Week 6’s biggest games:

College football Week 6 staff picks

A classic rivalry returns to the big stage
No. 24 Virginia at Louisville, 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2
No. 3 Miami at No. 18 Florida State, 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC

Florida State’s loss at Virginia lessened some of the hype for this game, but it’s still a big Miami-Florida State game, and we haven’t had many of those in recent years. What was one of the best rivalries in the 1980s and 90s has lost some of its luster more recently, with one or both of the programs being down for much of the last decade.

This is the first time both FSU and Miami are ranked when they play each other since 2016. Contrast that with a run from 1984-94 where they not only were both ranked every year, but both were ranked inside the top 10 six of those years. Similarly, from 1999-2006 both teams were ranked every year, and there were five more top-10 matchups.

The Seminoles fell out of the top 10 with the loss at Virginia, but this one should still play a major role in the ACC race. If Miami wins, FSU will have an uphill climb to get into the ACC title game.

Speaking of Virginia, the Cavaliers earned another big game by beating the Seminoles. They jumped into the AP Top 25, but are still a touchdown underdog at undefeated Louisville. The winner of this game is in a great position to make the ACC title game, especially if it’s Virginia, which doesn’t have another ranked team on its schedule the rest of the way. The Cardinals have won the last three in the series.

Revenge game for Alabama?
No. 16 Vanderbilt at No. 10 Alabama, 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC
No. 9 Texas at Florida, 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN

Ahh, the classic Vanderbilt-Alabama game that we look forward to every year. Wait, what?

Vanderbilt stunned Alabama fans out of the Nick Saban era last year and is 5-0 to start this season, so this is a big game by any reasonable definition.

Alabama is favored by double-digits, which shouldn’t scare Vanderbilt after the Commodores won as a 23-point underdog last year. The narrative could be that Alabama is playing at home and won’t let its guard down against Vandy again. Let’s go down a research hole to find out if the revenge game narrative actually holds any weight.

Dating back to 2019, there have been 45 upsets in the FBS where the underdog was getting at least 20 points on the spread (none of those upsets have happened yet this season). Of those upsets, 20 had rematches the following season (with three more to come this year, starting with Bama-Vandy and including Michigan-Ohio State). All of those rematches were in-conference. Of the 20 rematches, the team that pulled off the upset the year before went 6-14 in the rematches. Special nod to Kansas State, which beat Oklahoma as a 23.5-point underdog in 2019 and then did it again on the road as a 27.5-point underdog in 2020.

Of course, if a team was a huge favorite against a team the year before, it seems likely that team would still be favored the following year, as is the case with Alabama here. That was true in 19 of the 20 rematches. Even still, the team that got upset the year before went 13-7 against the spread the following year and the 13 teams that covered won by an average of 26.5 points. It’s not the biggest sample size, but it does give some credence to the revenge game narrative that Alabama can work with this week.

Speaking of narratives, Florida has been staring at 1-5 since the home loss to South Florida more than three weeks ago. The 1-3 Gators are an underdog against Texas and have a trip to No. 6 Texas A&M up next.

Florida’s defense has not been the problem, allowing 18 points to USF, 20 to LSU and 26 to Miami. DJ Lagway only passed for 61 yards against Miami. Florida may not win, but the Gators’ defense will be a quality test for Texas quarterback Arch Manning. It will likely be the best defense Manning has seen since Ohio State in the season opener, which did not go well.

Big 12 favorites face road tests
No. 14 Iowa State at Cincinnati, noon ET on ESPN2
No. 11 Texas Tech at Houston, 7 p.m. ET on ESPN

Texas Tech planted its flag as the favorite to win the Big 12 with a convincing win at Utah a couple weeks ago. The Red Raiders go on the road again to face another undefeated team. This time, it’s Houston, which at 4-0 has already matched its win total in each of the first two years since the Cougars’ move to the Big 12.

Tech is favored by double digits, with the betting market showing confidence in the Red Raiders’ strong start and skepticism about Houston. The Cougars’ best win is probably Colorado, which is only 2-3. Last week, Houston needed overtime to win at 0-5 Oregon State.

The Red Raiders are coming off a bye and are seeking their first 5-0 start since 2013, which was Kliff Kingsbury’s first season in Lubbock (!) and when Baker Mayfield (!!) was sharing time at quarterback with Davis Webb.

If the spread is to be trusted, Tech might not be on full upset watch, but Iowa State should be. The No. 14 Cyclones head to 3-1 Cincinnati as a small underdog. The Bearcats lost to Nebraska in a game at Arrowhead Stadium that went down to the last possession, and won at Kansas on the last possession last week. Iowa State’s first true road game of the season was a forgettable 24-16 win at Arkansas State, but the Cyclones bounced back last week with an impressive 39-14 win against Arizona.

Will a sleeper Big Ten contender emerge?
Washington at Maryland, 3:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network

A week after Oregon-Penn State and, to a lesser extent, Ohio State-Washington and Indiana-Iowa, the top teams in the Big Ten are not in focus this week. It’s more about the middle of the pack. Michigan State at Nebraska is a meeting of two 3-1 teams that could be shuffling for bowl position, but Washington at Maryland has a bit more intrigue with the favored team on the road.

The Huskies’ defense held up well against Ohio State, but the offense wasn’t capable of doing much in a 24-6 loss. What will Maryland freshman quarterback Malik Washington be able to do against a Huskies defense that is allowing less than 300 yards per game and kept Ohio State mostly in check?

Washington looked like it could be a top-25 team in that losing effort against Ohio State. Maryland is still undefeated, but the best win was at floundering Wisconsin. This is a good test of how good these teams might be.

Wild card picks

Every week, our pickers select another bet of their choosing that isn’t limited to the games listed above.

Matt Baker: Air Force/Navy under 51.5

Mark Cooper: UConn -7.5 vs. FIU

Seth Emerson: SMU -17.5 vs. Syracuse

Sam Khan Jr.: Sam Houston/New Mexico State under 53.5

Austin Mock: Kentucky/Georgia over 48

Dan Santaromita: BYU -18.5 vs. West Virginia

Daniel Shirley: Army -7 at UAB

David Ubben: Army over 32.5 points

Chris Vannini: Colorado State/San Diego State under 40.5

Picks standings
WriterWeek 5Wild cardsOverall

Sam Khan Jr.

1-8-1

4-2

30-21-1

Matt Baker

6-3-1

5-1

30-21-1

Dan Santaromita

6-3-1

0-6

27-24-1

Chris Vannini

5-4-1

3-3

25-26-1

David Ubben

5-4-1

3-3

25-26-1

Seth Emerson

4-5-1

0-5

23-27-1

Austin Mock

4-5-1

3-3

23-28-1

Daniel Shirley

3-6-1

0-4-1

19-30-2

Mark Cooper

3-6-1

2-4

18-33-1

(Photo of Tommy Castellanos: Ryan M. Kelly / Getty Images)