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Seventy student-athletes in the NCAA Division I Football’s Group of Five FBS Conferences have been named to the 2020 College Sports Journal G5 All-America Team. As a reminder, the Group of Five FBS conferences include the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MWC), and the Sun Belt Conference.
Despite the cancellation of several conference tournaments and the annual NCAA Tournament, Middle Tennessee State will be taking a much more optimistic approach to the start of the 2020-21 season.
College Sports Journal 2020 NFL Draft Preview of Group of FIve Schools
J’Mar Smith passed for one touchdown and ran for another with just over one minute remaining in the game as Louisiana Tech blanked the Hurricanes 14-0 on Thursday in Shreveport.
The first Independence Bowl was played in 1977 and saw Louisiana Tech defeat Louisville 24-14. Louisville returned the following season and dropped a 35-13 decision to East Carolina. Louisiana Tech also appeared in two other Independence Bowls, a 34-34 tie against Maryland in 1990 and a 17-10 win over Northern Illinois in 2008.
The Owls’ perfection in bowl games remained intact as Florida Atlantic cruised past SMU 52-28 to win the Cheribundi Boca Raton Bowl on Dec. 21 at FAU Stadium.
Appalachian State vs. UAB (New Orleans Bowl) When: Saturday, December 21st, 9:00 PM EST Where: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, Louisiana TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN (subscription req’d) New Orleans Bowl History (Last 6) Dec. 15th, 2018: Appalachian State 45, Middle Tennessee State 13 Dec. 16th, 2017: Troy 50, North Texas 30 Dec. 17th, 2016: Southern Miss 28, Louisiana-Lafayette.
Happily for Bulls fans, Buffalo was able to reload, not rebuild, as they competed for the MAC East title all season and easily qualified for bowl eligibility with a 49-30 win over Toledo and, for good measure, pounded Bowling Green 49-7 the following week, leaving zero doubt.
UAB at FAU When: Saturday, December 7, 12:30 PM CST Where:FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, Fla. TV/Streaming: CBS Sports Network / CBS Sports App UAB Blazers (9-3, 6-2 C-USA) Conference USA West Division Champions Location: Birmingham, Ala. Enrollment: 22,080 Season Recap:UAB, the reigning Conference USA Champion, looks to win back-to-back titles on Saturday when the Blazers visit Florida Atlantic for.
BOONE, NC – The college football season is winding down and almost all of the talk is concerning the College Football Playoffs and the four available spots that accompany it. Will it be defending national champion Clemson, LSU, Ohio State, Alabama, Georgia or somebody else? Just as important to the group of five conferences is.
Four of the five Group of Five teams ranked teams won in Week 12. Cincinnati, who is currently is ranked as the highest ranked G5 team, had the toughest win this week over South Florida on the road. The Bearcats used a Sam Crosa field goal on the final play of the game, but Cincinnati.
Wow, what a Week 11 we had in the Group of Five. Two late season Power 5 wins over the Southeastern Conference highlighted the week with Appalachian State hanging on to knock off South Carolina and Western Kentucky blowing out Arkansas. With the win, Appalachian State likely move itself again into the conversation for a.
And then there was none. We came into Week 10 with two undefeated teams in Appalachian State and SMU and after Week 10 there are none left. Appalachian State lost at home to Georgia Southern Thursday night, while SMU lost at Memphis Saturday night. This leads to a lot of uncertainty in the Group of.
After several weeks of at least one of the undefeated teams going down, Week 9 saw a little more normalcy in the Group of Five. The two remaining undefeated teams left in Appalachian State and SMU remained that way with each picking up wins this week. The Mountaineers won easily at South Alabama in Sun.
Down goes #1. Just one week after capturing the top spot in the Sagarin rankings amongst the Group of Five teams, Boise State fell this week at BYU. That loss puts the list of undefeated Group of Five teams down to just two in SMU and Appalachian State. Both SMU and App State breezed to.
For the first time in over two years, UCF is not the top ranked team in the Group of Five. Boise State now sits in the driver’s seat for the top spot and the New Year’s Six Bowl bid. The Broncos travel to independent BYU this week in their hopes to stay atop of the.
And we are down to three. Three undefeated teams in the Group of Five that is. That number is down from the four we had coming into Week 7. Memphis fell from the ranks of the undefeated teams with its narrow loss at Temple. Appalachian State and Boise State, however, remained unscathed and SMU had.
Wow, what a game in Dallas!! SMU came back from a three touchdown deficite to win in three overtimes over Tulsa. The Mustangs remain undefeated with the come-from-behind victory. Memphis also in the AAC West remained undefeated with its win at the Sun Belt’s Louisiana-Monroe. UCF lost to Cincinnati to likely be out of the.
This Friday, one game stood out but a second game came to light that a week ago looked like a walkover type game in the Group of Five. The highlight game Friday for sure is Marshall visiting Boise State. But the second game came to light with the typically low ranked Rice played a 11-win.
FAU went just 5-7 (3-5 C-USA) that ended poorly with closed with painful losses to North Texas and Charlotte by three points apiece. This was a year after Coach Lane Kiffin led the Owls to a bowl victory during his debut campaign in Boca Raton in 2017.
Late-season setbacks against Southern Miss and Western Kentucky prevented Louisiana Tech from contending for a Conference USA title, but the Bulldogs bounced back with a 31-14 win over Hawaii in the Hawaii Bowl to finish 8-5 overall (5-3 C-USA).
Marshall has had back-to-back bowl winning seasons, going 8-5 in 2017 and 9-4 in 2018 and the Herd enjoyed the season finale,where the Marshall defense sparked a 38-20 win over USF in the Gasparilla Bowl.
FIU recorded a school-record nine (9-4 overall, wins in 2018, building on the surprising success of Coach Butch Davis’ debut season leading the Panthers. There was some frustration, as the Panthers lost to rival FAU and Marshall to end the season, but FIU soon rebounded to defeat Toledo in the Bahamas Bowl.
Southern Miss finished being bowl eligible by finishing last season with a 6-5 overall record (5-3 C-USA) but were not selected despite ending the 2018 campaign winning three of its final four games.
In just its second season since its revival as program, the Blazers won eleven games (11-3, 7-1 C-USA) and a C-USA Championship over Middle Tennessee State in 2018, as well as the Baca Raton Bowl over Northern Illinois.
UNT finished the season 9–4 (5–3 C-USA) play to finish in a three-way tie for second place in the West Division and were invited to the New Mexico Bowl where they lost to Utah State.
The Blue Raiders won their first division title and came within a late score of the C-USA championship to UAB but were blown out by Appalachian State in the New Orleans Bowal to finish 8-6 overall, 7-1 C-USA.
After a 6-7 2017 season, WKU dropped to 3-9 in 2018, losing nine of its first 10 games of the season but closed out the year with two consecutive wins but those were not enough to save Coach Mike Sanford’s job. Sanford finished his two year tenure with a 9-16 overall mark and just 6-10 in C-USA play.
Charlotte finished 5-7 overall (4-4 C-USA) and was an improved football team in 2018 to set school records for wins at the FBS level and in C-USA play but did not improve enough to save coach Brad Lambert’s job. Lambert, the only coach the 49ers have had in their program’s six years of existence, ended his 49er run with a record of 22-48.
The Monarchs started the season at just 1-6 (although the one win was over the ACC’s Virginia Tech) but rallied to a 3-2 end to finish the season at 4-8 overall (2-6 C-USA) and its second straight losing season.
UTSA finished dead last in the nation in total offense – averaging just 247 yards per game – and scoring a mere 14 points per outing–yet still finished with a 3-9 overall record (2-6 CUSA).
The Owls won their first (FCS Prairie View A&M) and last (Old Dominion) games of the season but unfortantely did not win any other games in between to finish 2-10 overall (1-7 CUSA) in Coach Bloomgren’s first season with the team.
Texas-El Paso Miners Location: El Paso, TX Coach: Dana Dimel (1-11) 2nd Season at UTEP Stadium: Sun Bowl (Capacity 51,500) CSJ Projections: 14th: Conference USA 7th: C-USA West Division 16th: Texas 130th: FBS 65th: Group of Five 205th: Division I 2018 In a Sentence: UTEP had an awful season in 2018, starting with an opening.
Marshall men’s basketball looks to stay perfect as it prepares for road game at Western Kentucky on Monday.
Hawai’i vs. Louisiana Tech (Hawai’i Bowl) When: Saturday, December 22, 19:30 PM EST Where: Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN (subscription req’d) Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors (T-2nd, Mountain West West, 8-5, 5-3) Hawai’i is making its eighth SoFi Hawai‘i Bowl appearance and second in the last three years. This is their 12th overall bowl overall. Hawai‘i.
FIU is back in the postseason for the second consecutive year under Butch Davis.
Marshall vs. South Florida (Gasparilla Bowl) When: Thursday, December 20, 8:00 PM EST Where: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla. TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN (subscription req’d) Marshall Thundering Herd (T-2nd C-USA East, 8-4, 6-2) The Thundering Herd earned a bowl bid thanks to a defense that is giving up just 336.9 yards per game (No. 3 in C-USA), 4.77.
UAB vs. Northern Illinois (Boca Raton Bowl) When: Tuesday, December 18, 7:00 PM EST Where: FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, Fla. TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN (subscription req’d) UAB Blazers (1st C-USA West, 10-3, 7-1) Two years after failing to field a team, UAB went 10-3 and won the Conference USA Championship to set up a matchup with.
Appalachian State vs. Middle Tennessee State (New Orleans Bowl) When: Saturday, December 15, 9:00 PM EST Where: Superdome, New Orleans, La. TV/Streaming: ESPN, WatchESPN (subscription req’d) Appalachian State Mountaineers (1st Sun Belt East, 10-2, 7-1) App State lost to Penn State in overtime in Happy Valley to open the season before winning 10 of its.
Utah State vs. North Texas (New Mexico Bowl) When: Saturday, December 15, 2:00 PM EST Where: Dreamstyle Stadium, Albuquerque, N.M. TV/Streaming: ESPN / Watch ESPN Utah State Aggies (T-1st MWC Mountain, 10-2, 7-1) Utah State has seen one head coach leave and another get hired with Gary Anderson the new man in charge in Logan. Caught in the midst.
UAB at Middle Tennessee State When: Saturday, December 1, 12:30 PM CST Where: Floyd Stadium, Murfreesboro, Tenn. TV/Streaming: CBS Sports Network / CBS Sports App UAB Blazers (9-3, 7-1 C-USA) Conference USA West Division Champions Location: Birmingham, Ala. Enrollment: 21,923 Sagarin Rating: 80 (18 in G5) Season Recap: UAB clinched the West Division by two games over LA Tech, Southern.
UCF defeated Navy and remains the only unblemished team left in the Group of Five. While the Knights kept winning, other Group of Five conference contending teams including San Diego State, Fresno State, North Texas, South Florida, Houston, and Georgia Southern fell this week. Below is a brief summary of each conference and its race.
When: Saturday, October 13, 2:30 PM EDT Where: Joan C. Edwards Stadium, Huntington, W.Va. TV/Streaming: Facebook Live Florida Atlantic Owls (3-3, 1-1 C-USA) FAU has struggled on defense for much of the season but has improved dramatically during conference play as they are allowing 28 points per game while generating four interceptions. Where the Owls have shined is.
College Sports Journal announces their 2018 Fearless Prediction for the Order of finish of Conference USA, the third of our Group of Five Conference previews. C-USA had a landmark season by sending a league record nine teams to bowl games. Florida Atlantic won the league last year and also won the Boca Raton Bowl. Florida.
Florida Atlantic Owls Location: Boca Raton, FL Coach: Lane Kiffin (11-3 @FAU, 46-24 overall) 2nd Season Stadium: FAU Stadium (Capacity: 29,495) CSJ Projections: 1st: Conference USA (1st in East Division) 5th: Florida 45th: FBS 47th: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: In Coach Lane Kiffin’s first season at FAU, he lead a team that had three.
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Location: Ruston, LA Coach: Skip Holtz (38-29 @ LT, 126-99 overall) 6th Season Stadium: Joe Aillet Stadium (Capacity: 32,227) CSJ Projections: 2nd: Conference USA (1st in West Division) 2nd: Louisiana 75th: FBS 78th: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: Louisiana Tech missed out on a third division title in four years because of.
Marshall Thundering Herd Location: Huntington, WV Coach: Doc Holliday (61-42) 9th Season Stadium: Joan C. Edwards Stadium (Capacity: 32,227) CSJ Projections: 3rd: Conference USA (2nd in East Division) 2nd: West Virginia 79th: FBS 83rd: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: After an unexpected down 2016 season (3-9 record), the Thundering Herd rebounded back to its winning ways and.
Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders Location: Murfreesboro, TN Coach: Rick Stockstill (79-72) 13th Season Stadium: Johnny “Red” Floyd Stadium (Capacity: 30,788) CSJ Projections: 4th: Conference USA (3rd in East Division) 4th: Tennessee 91st: FBS 97th: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: MTSU looked as if it could have had a very special season to start but injuries.
North Texas Mean Green Location: Denton, TX Coach: Seth Littrell (14-13) 3rd Season Stadium: Apogee Stadium (Capacity: 30,850) CSJ Projections: 5th: Conference USA (2nd in West Division) 9th: Texas 93rd: FBS 99th: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: The Mean Green came up with a nine-win season (9-5) with a shot at the Conference USA title,.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles Location: Hattiesburg, MS Coach: Jay Hopson (15-11) 3rd Season Stadium: M.M. Roberts Stadium (Capacity: 36,000) CSJ Projections: 6th: Conference USA (3rd in West Division) 3rd: Mississippi 94th: FBS 101th: Division I 2017 In A Sentence: Southern Miss finished just about where so called experts picked the Golden Eagles–tied for 2nd in the C-USA West.
