Highlights: CSJ FBS Group of Five Top Five Games and Recap of Week 13
Four of the five Group of Five teams ranked teams won in Week 13. Memphis, who is leading the rankings following last week’s College Football Playoff Top 25, won easily at South Florida 49-10 and likely will stay atop the rankings this week.
Cincinnati is next in the rankings won again in another close contest against visiting Temple, 15-13. The Bearcats and Tigers meet next week in Memphis in a huge game for the overall G5 standings.
Boise State won easily at Utah State 56-21 and very well could get the G5 Cotton Bowl bid if the AAC teams cancel each other out by each losing over the next two weeks.
Appalachian State defeated Texas State easily 35-13 and will need some the AAC teams to lose and Boise State to lose over the next two weeks to get the node, along with winning the Sun Belt title.
SMU will be short timers in the Top 25 rankings and likely will be surplanted by Navy, who fell out of the rankings this past week. The Midshipmen defeated the Mustangs 35-28 at home. Navy will still be in the AAC mix as well and if the four teams ahead of them all fall and the Midshipmen win the AAC crown and could be a long shot to win the G5 best spot.
The following are the conference divsion race rundowns with just one week left in the regular season in each of the G5 leagues:
American Athletic
East: Cincinnati clinched the division with a win over Temple on Saturday night.
West: Memphis can clinch the division with win over Cincinnati on Friday. If Memphis loses and Navy beats Houston, Navy wins the West.
Conference USA
East: Florida Atlantic will clinch the division with a win over Southern Miss on Saturday. If FAU loses, Marshall can win the division with a win over Florida International.
West: This is the wildest division race in the G5. UAB beat Louisiana Tech on Saturday. Both teams are tied with Southern Miss atop the division. If all three teams have the same result in the final weekend, UAB wins the tiebreaker. If two of the teams are tied at the end of the season the tiebreaker is head-to-head between the tied teams.
MAC
East: Miami (OH) clinched the division with its win over Akron last Wednesday.
West: Western Michigan and Central Michigan are tied atop the division. WMU defeated CMU earlier in the season and owns the tiebreaker. If WMU beats Northern Illinois on Tuesday, it wins the division. If WMU loses, CMU can win the division with a win over Toledo on Friday.
Mountain West
Mountain: Boise State clinched the Mountain Division on Saturday night with a 56-21 win at Utah State. The Broncos will host Hawaii in the conference championship game on Dec. 7.
West: With the victory yesterday over San Diego State, Hawaii tied for the West Division title, but represents the West in the Mountain West championship game by virtue of the victory over the Aztecs.
Sun Belt
East: Appalachian State clinced the division with its win over Texas State and Georgia Southern losing to Arkansas State Saturday.
West: Louisiana clinched the division following its win over Troy.
Top 5 Games of the Week
Here are my Top 5 games this week that involved the CFP Top 25 teams and other divisional winners and contenders.
1. Cincinnati 15 Temple 13 (Cincinnati, Ohio)
2. UAB 20 Louisiana Tech 14 (Birmingham, Ala.)
3. Navy 35 SMU 28 (Annapolis, Md.)
4. Charlotte 24 Marshall 13 (Annapolis, Md.)
5. Hawai’i 14 San Diego State 11 (Honalulu, Hawai’i)
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football is the Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
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