After the demise of the Big East Conference the American Athletic Conference was born and struggled to grab a foothold in the national college football picture. Aside from the 2013 season where UCF made the Fiesta Bowl as the best group of five team and beat Baylor, it’s a conference that’s had a tough time being gaining equal footing with the powerhouse teams from the power five conferences.
This season, though, has been a different story as the AAC has made a big impression on the race for the college football playoff. It started with Memphis comfortably knocking off Ole Miss who were highly regarded having just beaten Alabama. Then Temple pushed Notre Dame all the way just a few weeks later. In the meantime, Navy quietly moved to 8-1; and Houston remained unbeaten at 10-0 after both teams beat Memphis. So lets take a look at how the AAC division races are shaping up as we move into the last few weeks:
East
The Temple Owls missed a big opportunity last Saturday to book a place in the AAC title game. A win over South Florida would have made it certain; but they fell in a disappointing 44-23 loss. This defeat means the door could be open for South Florida to sneak in. They are still a win behind, but have an easier final two games. Temple will host Memphis this week which will be a tough test, and could allow USF to draw level whilst holding the tiebreaker.
Elsewhere Connecticut has quietly improved this year and needs just one more win to become bowl eligible. Cincinnati has endured another disappointing campaign after being one of the preseason favorites to win the East. Gunner Kiel continues to impress, but the Bearcats have struggled to play consistently week to week; and there are rumors he may declare for the NFL draft.
West
Memphis was the big name in the West division after that marquee out of conference win over Ole Miss. But after back to back defeats against Navy and Houston they are out of the race at 4-2. It’s now down to the aforementioned Navy and Houston who both remain undefeated in conference play. Both sides have tricky road games coming up this week. Navy is at Tulsa and Houston is at Connecticut before the two teams face off in Houston to decide the division. The division winner with the best conference record will host the conference title game. So if the winner of the West is undefeated they will have this honor.
At the bottom of the division, the Chad Morris era at SMU has seen the team become far more competitive, especially on offense. Unfortunately, they’re still yet to win an AAC game this season. They did beat North Texas out of conference, but have only two more games (Tulane and at Memphis) left to try to get that win.
College Football Playoff
Realistically only Houston has an outside chance of making the College Football Playoff. It goes without saying that they would have to go 13-0 and hope for some chaos elsewhere in the power five conferences. Even then, it’s hard to see the committee picking Houston whose main wins would be over Memphis and Navy in conference, Louisville on the road, and Vanderbilt out of conference.
Unfortunately it’s a strength of schedule that cannot match most of the current playoff hopefuls. This is reflected in their ranking as the committee had them at #24 before the win over Memphis this week. That win should see them jump up, especially with many other ranked teams above them losing. But the Associated Press poll only has them ranked #13 currently. So if Houston can win out it might have to be satisfied with a New Year’s bowl game.
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