A Jersey Guy: Crunch Time For AAC and Group of 5 Schools
This week hasn't picked up a television nickname yet, simply because in this COVID-19 world of college football, there are no guarantees until almost kick-off that any game will be played.
But make no mistake, it is a pivotal weekend in the college football season, especially for people like American Athletic Conference’s Mike Aresco and some of his Group of 5 brethren.
Here's why.
The CFB Playoff selection committee will release its first rankings on Tuesday night. The Top 4 teams will fill in the playoff slots slated for January 1 semifinal games at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.
As is usually the case, the Power 5 conferences are expected to fill all four slots.
But...and because of COVID-19 which has shortened seasons in the Big Ten and Pac-12 and created havoc everywhere, the list of contending teams is much smaller this season.
The Group of 5 schools has a clause guaranteeing it one slot among the six New Year's Day Bowl games, which also includes a possible slot in the Final Four if one of those teams is ranked high enough.
Which brings us to the games scheduled to be played in the next few days.
Among the Group of 5 schools, Cincinnati and BYU are both unbeaten and serious contenders for a New Year's Six bowl slot.
Other unbeaten teams such as Liberty, Marshall and East Carolina are also unbeaten, which has created a nice mixture of quality teams at the next level of play, while Tulsa has quietly turned into a power in the AAC.
In looking at the games spread over the next three days and nights, we see some intriguing match ups.
On Thursday night Tulsa, which faces Cincinnati a week from now, will be tested against a better than average Tulane team.
Then comes Saturday's match ups.
Appalachian State vs Coastal Carolina in a Sunbelt Eastern Division match up that no one could have predicted as being meaningful a month ago.
App State is a two-time defending Sunbelt Champ, while Coastal Carolina is not only unbeaten but ranked, quite an achievement for the Chanticleers, who were picked to finish last in their division in pre-season.
How big is this game? Tickets at Coastal's Brook Stadium are selling for a $178 a pop.
It will be by far Coastal's biggest challenge of the season.
Then we move to the AAC, where Cincinnati takes on defending champ UFC in Orlando, which looked like the marquee game at the start of the season, pitting last year's championship game participants.
But UCF has already lost twice this season and now is an a spoiler role. It will be Cincinnati's biggest test of the year and would put the Bearcats as the favorite to get at least a New Year's Six Bowl game slot, if not more.
If Cincinnati wins, that would most likely leave Tulsa as the Bearcats main challenge, which would include beating the Golden Hurricane twice in a three week period in the regular season
On Saturday night, Liberty, which is unbeaten and 2-0 against Atlantic Coast Conference schools, takes on its third ACC challenger in NC State. The game will be played in Raleigh, which means another watch out game for Liberty, which could finish unbeaten if it makes it 3-0 vs. the ACC.
BYU, which also has dreams of a New Year's Six bowl game should have a walk over against North Alabama and appears to be the most likely of this group to finish the regular season unbeaten.
It is very possible that both Cincinnati and Liberty could have a loss by Saturday night. That would leave BYU, currently ranked No. 8 in the polls, sitting in the prime slot.
In all cases, it looks like a fun and meaningful weekend for the Group of 5 schools.