Last year Fresno State came very close to getting into the BCS. \u00a0This year everything changes for the Group of 5. \u00a0The American Conference goes from being an automatic qualifier (IE being recognized with the top conferences) to being recognized with the Group of 5 conferences. \u00a0The highest ranked team from here on out gets to one of the big bowls and a nice pay-day. Of course it is possible that an undefeated group of 5 team can make it to the playoffs, but they will have to win convincingly and\/or beat a Power 5 school.<\/p>\n
This year the top contenders for a playoff spot are Marshall, Boise St, UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati. Marshall has the easiest schedule, but no marquee matchups, so they have the best chance of being undefeated, but they will need to win big in almost every game. \u00a0Boise State has a game against Ole Miss to start the season, if they can win that game (provided Ole Miss does well in the SEC) and win convincingly against the rest of their schedule, they will have a good argument. \u00a0UCF has Penn State, Missouri and BYU, if they can somehow win 2 of 3 against that and win the rest, they are one team that has any kind of argument with 1 loss (still not a great one). Houston has BYU, so they will need to win convincingly against every opponent and win that game. Cincinnati has Ohio St and Miami (Fl), they like UCF could also have a weak argument for getting in with 1 loss if they win the rest big. \u00a0Of course a loss to any other team than one that finishes in the top 5, knocks them out. \u00a0With that said I think the best chance lies with Marshall going undefeated.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is a look at the top teams from each conference that should compete for the conference Title, as well as our picks to win each conference.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
American Conference<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n HOUSTON:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.91<\/span><\/p>\n AAC Win Share: 5.92\u00a0(overall 9.01)<\/span><\/p>\n CINCINNATI:<\/p>\n Overall Rating: 3.88<\/span><\/p>\n AAC Win Share: 5.86 (overall 8.11)<\/span><\/p>\n UCF:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.61<\/span><\/p>\n AAC Win Share: 5.29\u00a0(overall 7.31)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our Pick for Conference Champion is Houston, winning the tie-breaker over UCF and Cincinnati, All 3 teams get left out of Contract Bowls and Playoff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mountain West Conference<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n BOISE STATE<\/em>:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a04.05<\/span><\/p>\n MWC\u00a0Win Share: 6.45\u00a0(overall 8.98)<\/span><\/p>\n UTAH\u00a0STATE<\/em>:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.44<\/span><\/p>\n MWC\u00a0Win Share: 5.09\u00a0(overall 7.61)<\/span><\/p>\n FRESNO\u00a0STATE<\/em>:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.39<\/span><\/p>\n MWC\u00a0Win Share: 4.90\u00a0(overall 6.39)<\/span><\/p>\n SAN DIEGO\u00a0STATE<\/em>:<\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.26<\/span><\/p>\n MWC\u00a0Win Share: 4.51\u00a0(overall 6.53)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have Boise State facing off against Fresno State in the MWC championship game, with Boise winning. \u00a0Boise will contend with Marshall for the Contract bowl automatic spot, but fall short of the Playoffs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conference USA<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n MARSHALL:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.63<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA\u00a0Win Share: 5.85\u00a0(overall 9.42)<\/span><\/p>\n MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.32<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA\u00a0Win Share: 5.26\u00a0(overall 7.40)<\/span><\/p>\n RICE:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.43<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA\u00a0Win Share: 5.36\u00a0(overall 6.97)<\/span><\/p>\n UTSA:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.37<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA\u00a0Win Share: 5.23\u00a0(overall 6.71)<\/span><\/p>\n NORTH TEXAS:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.34<\/span><\/p>\n CUSA\u00a0Win Share: 4.87\u00a0(overall 6.66)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have Marshall beating Rice in the CUSA Championship game, with Marshall winning and contending with Boise St for the Contract Bowl automatic spot, but missing the playoffs as they will not go undefeated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mid-American Conference<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n BOWLING GREEN:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.44<\/span><\/p>\n MAC\u00a0Win Share: 6.02\u00a0(overall 8.37)<\/span><\/p>\n BUFFALO:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.30<\/span><\/p>\n MAC\u00a0Win Share: 5.10\u00a0(overall 7.55)<\/span><\/p>\n NORTHERN ILLINOIS:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.54<\/span><\/p>\n MAC\u00a0Win Share: 6.30\u00a0(overall 8.40)<\/span><\/p>\n TOLEDO:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.34<\/span><\/p>\n MAC\u00a0Win Share: 5.09\u00a0(overall 6.82)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have Northern Illinois facing off against Bowling Green for the MAC Championship, with NIU winning. However they will not make a run at a big bowl or the playoffs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sun Belt<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n USA:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.26<\/span><\/p>\n Sun Belt\u00a0Win Share: 5.21\u00a0(overall 6.31)<\/span><\/p>\n LOUISIANA LAFAYETTE:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.22<\/span><\/p>\n Sun Belt\u00a0Win Share: 5.55\u00a0(overall 7.28)<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have Louisiana winning the Sun Belt Championship, but falling short of the big bowls and playoffs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Independents<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n NOTRE DAME:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a04.35<\/span><\/p>\n Win Share: 7.21<\/span><\/p>\n BRIGHAM YOUNG:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a04.05<\/span><\/p>\n Win Share:\u00a08.48<\/span><\/p>\n NAVY:<\/em><\/p>\n Overall Rating:\u00a03.48<\/span><\/p>\n Win Share:\u00a07.76<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite all of these teams (and potentially Army too) making a bowl game, none of them will come close to competing for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top 10 offenses:<\/span><\/p>\n BYU<\/p>\n Navy<\/p>\n Cincinnati<\/p>\n Notre Dame<\/p>\n Marshall<\/p>\n Toledo<\/p>\n UCF Houston<\/p>\n Air Force<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top 10 Defenses:<\/span><\/p>\n Boise State<\/p>\n Notre Dame<\/p>\n BYU<\/p>\n Utah State<\/p>\n Colorado State<\/p>\n UCF Cincinnati<\/p>\n Middle Tenn St<\/p>\n Rice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last year Fresno State came very close to getting into the BCS. \u00a0This year everything changes for the Group of 5. \u00a0The American Conference goes from being an automatic qualifier (IE being recognized with the top conferences) to being recognized with the Group of 5 conferences. \u00a0The highest ranked team from here on out gets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,8,9,10,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.simplifiedfootball.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLouisiana<\/p>\n
\nHouston<\/p>\n