Highlights: CSJ FBS Group of Five Top Five Games of Week 7
The Power Five conferences saw a number of undefeated and high ranked teams fall in Week 7. That was not the case for the Group of Five conferences as the undefeated teams stayed that way but just narrowly.
AAC
UCF and South Florida kept their unblemished records but both had to come from behind in AAC games to escape with wins at Memphis and Tulsa respectively. The other undefeated team in the AAC East Division in Cincinnati had a bye this week so the Group of Five so the second half of the season in that division will be very interesting. Houston is the only remaining undefeated team in the West Division with its easy win at East Carolina.
Sun Belt
On Tuesday, Appalachian State made a statement road win with its victory within the Sun Belt over West Division favorite in Arkansas State. But the other East Division favorite in the league Troy fell to FBS newcomer and Independent Liberty on the road but are still undefeated in SBC play. Georgia Southern also remained undefeated in conference play but narrowly escaped a upset at Texas State.
Mountain West
The MWC saw division leaders San Diego State and Fresno in the West Division win with SDSU narrowly escaping an upset by Air Force, while FSU won easily over Wyoming. Hawai’i went out of conference but fell to Independent BYU on the road in a lopsided score. Boise State in the Mountain Division got back in the win column after falling to SDSU last week in its narrow road win over Nevada, while Utah State won easily over UNLV.
MAC
The MAC races look open but Buffalo won fairly easily over Akron to remain atop the East Division standings but in the West Division, Western Michigan and Northern Illinois had harder times to remain undefeated in league play. WMU and NIU both had to come from behind to win over Bowling Green and Ohio respectively.
Conference USA
C-USA has just two unblemished conference records with FIU winning narrowly over Middle Tennessee State at home but UAB had an easy road win at Rice.
Below are my Top 5 games of the week and I added in highlights of my next five match-ups as well. Click on the score for a detailed recap of the game and the video link to see highlights.
1 South Florida 25 Tulsa 24 (Tulsa, Okla.)
2 UCF 31 Memphis (Memphis, Tenn.)
3 San Diego State 21 Air Force 17 (San Diego, Calif.)
4 Northern Illinois 24 Ohio 21 (DeKalb, Ill.)
Because this can’t be shown enough, @MaxScharping with the BIG two-point conversion in the 24-21 @NIU_Football win over Ohio! #SCtop10 @ESPNCFB @ESPNSportsCentr pic.twitter.com/PDOSoaha13
— NIU Huskie Athletics (@NIUAthletics) October 14, 2018
5 Liberty 22 Troy 16 (Lynchburg, Va.)
BONUS NEXT FIVE BEST GAMES
Temple 24 Navy 17 (Annapolis, Md.)
Colorado State 20 New Mexico 18 (Fort Collins, Col.)
Boise State 31 Nevada 27 (Reno, Nev.)
Florida International 24 Middle Tennessee State 21 (Miami, Fla.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlJLD4_-76U
Western Michigan 42 Bowling Green 35 (Bowling Green, Ohio)
Bogan again! No. 4⃣ TD gives WMU a 42-35 lead!#WeWillReign pic.twitter.com/jhXJsC0G2B
— Western Michigan Football (@WMU_Football) October 13, 2018
Interception! Anton Curtis with the Bronco pick forces the turnover on downs!#WeWillReign pic.twitter.com/GdRU2G7RlO
— Western Michigan Football (@WMU_Football) October 13, 2018
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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