For much of last year it appeared as if the American Conference would have its 2nd straight appearance in a contract bowl. Until Houston crumpled down the stretch. The American Conference probably has the 4 best Group of 5 teams in the nation and 2 of them looked primed to be the Group of 5 representative in the Contract bowls. As stated in the Season preview the American conference looks very strong this year and well above the rest of the Group of 5. They have quite a few games that should garner lots of NFL scouts and national attention.
For each Conference we will have the Simplified Football predictions (record) with the Projected Win-Shares and rating of each team next to it. We will also have Bowl Projections for each conference.
American Predictions:
East
Team – Record (Conf) / Win-Shares (Conf) / Rating
- South Florida – 10-2 (6-2) / 8.74 (5.42) / 4.09
- Central Florida – 8-4 (6-2) / 7.91 (5.01) / 3.89
- ECU – 6-6 (4-4) / 6.26 (2.82) / 3.77
- Cincinnati – 5-7 (3-5) / 5.32 (3.48) / 3.31
- UCONN – 4-8 (3-5) / 5.32 (3.48) / 3.43
- Temple – 5-7 (2-6) / 4.77 (2.82) / 3.25
West
Team – Record (Conf) / Win-Shares (Conf) / Rating
- Houston – 10-2 (6-2) / 8.79 (5.76) / 4.29
- Tulsa – 7-5 (5-3) / 5.95 (3.8) / 3.67
- Memphis – 7-5 (4-4) / 7-37 (4.57) / 4.03
- Navy – 7-5 (4-4) / 4.73 (3.06) / 3.27
- SMU – 6-6 (3-5) / 6.29 (3.71) / 3.44
- Tulane – 4-8 (2-6) / 4.53 (2.68) / 3.09
Houston wins the West out-right and USF wins the East on a tie-break (beating UCF head to head).
Championship game – USF beats Houston in the Championship game and is the highest ranked Group of 5 team.
That makes 8 bowl teams for the AAC
Peach Bowl – USF
Cure Bowl – Memphis
Boca Raton Bowl – UCF
Birmingham Bowl – Houston
Hawaii Bowl – Tulsa
Frisco Bowl – SMU
Military Bowl – Navy
St Petersburg Bowl – ECU
Speak Your Mind