Highlights: CSJ FBS Group of Five Top Five Games of Week 8

On By Kent Schmidt
Temple players celebrate following their 24-17 win in overtime against Cincinnati . Courtesy of Chris Szagola, AP

Down is another undefeated team as Cincinnati could not overcome overtime against host Temple. It was another great week of action but we are starting to see how conference races are going to shape out.

Below is a brief summary of each conference along with my top games of the week.

AAC
While Cincinnati could not stay in the undefeated category, the other two East Division school of UCF and South Florida stayed unblemished against each of their opponents in East Carolina and UConn respectively. With Temple’s win over Cincinnati, it also remained undefeated in conference play. In the West Division, Houston defeated Navy rather easily to stay undefeated in league play as well. SMU came from behind to defeat Tulane to stay one game back and looks as the best chance to unseat Houston.

Sun Belt
In Group A (East), Appalachian State defeated Louisiana-Lafayette in league play while Georgia Southern defeated Independent New Mexico State on the road. Troy had a bye this week. All three are tied atop the division with 3-0 league marks. In Group B (West), the race is really wide open but Louisiana-Monroe sits on top current 2-2 league mark after its narrow win over 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 San Jose State, while FSU won easily at New Mexico. Hawai’i lost its second straight game in its home loss to Nevada. Utah State in the Mountain Division stayed undefeated in league play with its narrow win at Wyoming. Boise State remained a half game back with its blowout of Colorado State.

MAC
The MAC races are starting to straighten out with Buffalo staying as the only unbeaten team in the East Division with its road win at Toledo. In the West, Western Michigan stayed undefeated in league play with a win at Central Michigan. The Broncos are tied atop the standings with Northern Illinois, who was off this week.

Conference USA
C-USA has just two unblemished conference records with FIU winning easily at home over Rice in the East Division and UAB came from behind to defeat North Texas at home to stay on top of the West. With wins over UNT and Louisiana Tech already on its resume, it looks like UAB will be the West Division champion unless something unexpected happens. FIU has Marshall and Middle Tennessee State each a half game back. FIU has already defeated MTSU but ends the season at Marshall so that race likely will not be decided until the last weekend.

Independents
Army moved to 5-2 overall with its double overtime win over the MAC’s Miami (OH) and Liberty moved to 4-3 with its narrow win over FCS Idaho State. BYU was off this week. Those three schools look like the most likely to be bowl eligible this season.

Below are my Top 5 games of the week and I added in highlights of a couple others that caught my eye. Click on the score for a detailed recap of the game and the video link to see highlights.

1. Army 31 Miami (OH) 30 (2OT) (West Point, N.Y.)

2. Temple 24 Cincinnati 17 (OT) (Philadelphia, Pa.)

3. UAB 29 North Texas 21 (Birmingham, Ala.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs2FxT8oMWU

4. San Diego State 16 San Jose State 13 (San Diego, Calif.)

5. Buffalo 31 Toledo 17 (Toledo, Ohio)

Other Close Games and Games Involving Top Teams

Akron 24 Kent State 23 (OT) (Kent, Ohio)

Louisiana Tech 31 UTEP 24 (Ruston, La.)

South Florida 38 UConn 30 (Tampa, Fla.)

Liberty 48 Idaho State 41 (Lynchburg, Va.)

UCF 37 East Carolina 10 (Greenville, N.C.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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