Easiest Path to AAC Championship: UCF, Cincinnati or Houston?
One of the most unique aspects of college football would be scheduling. In particular, conference schedules have ebbs and flows that can help determine conference champions.
Here’s an overview of the schedules for the UCF Knights, Cincinnati Bearcats, and Houston Cougars in their efforts to win the 2022 American Athletic Conference (AAC) title. The following may help to determine the eventual regular season champion.
UCF Knights
To win the AAC title in the last year of their existence in the AAC, the Knights will need to be very good during the back end of their 2022 schedule. Starting with the road game against East Carolina (Oct. 22), UCF plays six consecutive conference games that contain their own pitfalls.
Beginning with the game against the Pirates, it’s a four-game stretch with three road games for the Knights. The lone home contest coming against Cincinnati (Oct. 29). The other two road games will be Memphis (Nov. 5) and Tulane (Nov. 12). The Tigers and Green Wave may not be the best teams in the league, but they are road contests.
To finish out the final six games of the 2022 schedule, UCF also has a “sandwich” game versus Navy (Nov. 19) in the Bounce House. Playing against the triple option after those four games is hard enough, but it’s also right before the final game of the regular season at arch-rival USF (Nov. 25).
Cincinnati Bearcats
Like the Knights, the Bearcats have a difficult four-game stretch of their own. Beginning with a road game against SMU (Oct. 22), Cincinnati will be challenged. After playing the Mustangs in Dallas, the next three games will be at UCF (Oct. 29), home to Navy (Nov. 5) and the triple option, and then a Friday game against East Carolina (Nov. 11).
Cincinnati has overcome adversity in recent seasons to be one of college football’s best programs, and that unique four-game slate of games will give the Bearcats a chance to prove their worth yet again.
Cincinnati does not play Houston, which is one advantage on their schedule. The final two games at Temple (Nov. 19) and home to Tulane (Nov. 26) might help the Bearcats ease their way into the postseason, too. The Owls are expected to be at or near the bottom of the conference standings this season, and the game against a mid-level AAC Tulane squad is at home for Cincinnati.
Houston Cougars
While Houston is taking on two Big XII opponents when it travels to Texas Tech (Sep. 10) and then hosts Kansas (Sep. 17), the conference slate has two built-in advantages.
First, when the Cougars play at Navy (Oct. 22), it will be after playing on the road at Memphis (Oct. 7), but also after a bye week. Navy is not the most talented team, but playing them with two weeks to prepare is a tremendous advantage for the coaching staff and players for the Cougars because it’s a triple-option attack they will be preparing for.
That extra time will make it much easier to prepare for instead of what UCF or Cincinnati faces as both play Navy with just one week to prepare.
Next, Houston does not play Cincinnati or UCF in the regular season. Point blank, that makes Houston’s schedule the most likely to be the easiest of the three teams favored to win the AAC title this season.
If Houston stays relatively healthy, quarterback Clayton Tune in particular, one could argue the most likely team to win the AAC would be the Cougars because their conference schedule is easier than UCF or Cincinnati.
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