While the Big Blue Nation will be glued to the SEC Network on Saturday evening, there's a lot of college football to be viewed throughout the day leading up to the game.

Here's your Week 5 viewing guide, which can also serve to catch you up to speed on what's happening and what will happen this weekend on gridirons across the country.

A decent slate of Friday night action ... If you're not going out this evening there are several games you might be interested in following. One-loss Duke travels to one-loss Virginia Tech,.No. 12 Penn State takes on Maryland, so we can find out if the Terrapins are the team that blew out Syracuse or the one that lost to Temple. Fresh off a win at Arkansas, San Jose State takes on an Air Force team that was undefeated until losing on the blue turf at Boise State last week. And Arizona State, which won at Michigan State before losing at home to Colorado (remember, nothing makes sense in this sport), travels to California to take on an undefeated Bears team that has won at Washington and Ole Miss.

Fair warning ... If you're expecting this week's slate of games to match last week's in terms of intrigue and national relevance, you will probably be disappointed. There is no Georgia-Notre Dame. There's not even an Auburn-Texas A&M.

The game of the week may be ... Virginia-Notre Dame? Or USC-Washington? Those are the only two games pitting Top-25 teams against one another.

So why should you care about UVA's trip to South Bend? Because for one, Notre Dame's playoffs hopes are not totally vanquished. They are significantly downgraded as a likelihood with that loss to UGA and in a year with so many impressive teams at the top of college football (and also with Michigan, ND's best remaining chance at a quality win, falling in the eyes of the public). But Notre Dame is still worth paying attention to and the Wahoos won't get to go to South Bend too frequently the way the scheduling works out with the ACC's agreement with the Independent Irish. UVA is undefeated and the odds-on favorite to take on Clemson in the ACC Championship Game after the regular season. They're outscoring opponents 35-18 on average and appear to be a fairly complete team, except they don't run the ball very well.

Bronco Mendenhall is a leading contender for National Coach of the Year and could be a trendy pick to replace Jim Harbaugh if he leaves Michigan (or is asked to leave) after the season.

As for USC-Washington, these are two teams that have suffered defeats already this season. But Washington didn't fall too far and rebounded with a 45-19 win at BYU, and USC (which lost to that BYU team on the road, where Washington won) rebounded from its loss to pull a home upset of Top-10 Utah last week.

This is one of several possible Pac-12 championship game matchups and the winner could vault in or around the Top-15.

Smooth sailing for the nation's top teams? ... As for the teams that have the best chance to win or compete for the national championship, this week's slate is not too daunting.

No. 1 Clemson travels to North Carolina for a game that looks much less tricky following the Tar Heels' losses to Wake Forest and Appalachian State.

No. 2 Alabama gets Ole Miss at home, and would it really shock anyone if the Tide drops a 60-spot on a Rebel team that has lost to Ole Miss and Cal?

No. 3 Georgia and No. 4 LSU are safe this week with byes.

No. 6 Ohio State travels to Nebraska and it would be quite an upset if the Cornhuskers could knock off the Buckeyes. Ryan Day's team has been maybe the most dominant and impressive force of the early 2019 college football season with Justin Fields leading the way. Miami-OH opened the scoring against Ohio State with a safety last year and ... maybe they shouldn't have done that.

Texas Tech is at No. 6 Oklahoma trying to pull an upset that would be unfathomable and No. 8 Wisconsin, which has been a complete wrecking ball this season, hosts a Northwestern team that isn't quite at the level of some of Pat Fitzgerald's best squads.

No. 7 Auburn gets a game ... The Tigers face Mississippi State and they get the Bulldogs at home. Auburn's defense should be the best unit on the field for either team and all due respect to Kentucky, which lost to MSU last weekend, but Auburn should take care of business on the Plains. This game could tell us more about Mississippi State in Joe Moorhead's second year. If the Bulldogs are competitive then maybe we can write off the loss to Kansas State as a flukey poor performance. But if it's a blowout, that would probably indicate this team is little more than a clear-cut No. 5 in the West, ahead of Ole Miss and Arkansas but behind the others.

Other games Kentucky fans might care about ... No. 23 Texas A&M is still ranked in spite of not doing anything this season. The Aggies have lost rather convincingly to Clemson (road) and Auburn (home). They go to Arkansas where UK fans should probably hope the Aggies destroy the Razorbacks. The 'Cats get the Hogs later this year and the best case scenario is to face a limping, demoralized team.

Northern Illinois is at Vanderbilt, and it would be a very good sign if the Commodores lost that game and continued their awful defense in the process.

Pac-12 After Dark could be fun ... The Pac-12, as is so often the case, has been one of the most entertaining conferences early in the college football season. The storylines are easy this week.

Washington State experienced one of the most surprising and deflating collapses in recent memory, squandering a 49-17 third quarter lead and losing to a previously winless Chip Kelly-coached UCLA team last week. The Cougars try to bounce back on the road against No. 19 Utah, which is also trying to bounce back, from a loss to USC. This is a great contrast in styles between pass happy Wazzu and Utah, which does have one of the better defensive fronts in the sport.

Thirty minutes after that one kicks off, UCLA begins its quest for a winning streak against Arizona on the road. Was last week a one-hit wonder or will it springboard the Bruins to bigger and better things?

Kansas State at Oklahoma State ... Before the season if you were told one of these teams would be ranked you might have guessed it would be the Pokes. Well, Kansas State is No. 24 and undefeated going on the road to Stillwater, where Oklahoma State is not undefeated but perhaps has more respect after nearly winning in Austin last week.