Welcome back to the 18S G5 Top Ten! While this weekend was very crazy at the top of the rankings, we saw the buildup of a the first G5 Game of the Century!
Also Considered: Boise State, Ohio, Fresno State, Wyoming, Toledo
The Races
First we take a look at what is going to be The First(?) G5 Game of the Century. First, Tulane, fully in the pole position for the NY6 spot after Tuesday, knocked off Tulsa with ease 27-13. Memphis gave UCF their best shot, ultimately falling short 35-28. These two teams play each other in New Orleans on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the American, we saw an absolutely insane scoring game. Houston and SMU pretended it was 1982 instead of 2022 and put up bananas numbers. Tanner Moredcai threw for 9 TDs and rushed for one in a 77-63 win in Dallas. The loss gives Houston two conference losses and effectively knocks them out of contention for a chance for the American Championship Game. Considering the expectations for Dana Holgorson before this season, it has to be a letdown going into the Big 12.
While Tulane @ UCF will take the shine in the conference, there will be a game on Friday night that will also potentially add some clarity to the American race. East Carolina goes into Nippert Stadium to take on Cincinnati. East Carolina has found their way to the Top Ten due to their consistent play and key wins over like opponents to get them in a position to be a dark horse in the American. If they can get past Fickell and the Bearcats, there is a potential path for them to get to the American Conference Championship Game.
In the Sun Belt. there was one big matchup of note. The game that in past years settled the Sun Belt East seemed to do so once again. Coastal Carolina knocked off App State 35-28 on Thursday night. The Chants got off to a fast start, with App trying to play catchup. A pick in the fourth quarter and subsequent run back and TD for Coastal ended up putting the game out of reach. Coastal now has a full game lead over everyone in the division. Their only loss in conference, Old Dominion, also lost this weekend. The only team in reach the rest of the way for the Chants is JMU, who cannot play in the conference championship game. Everything seems to be coming up Chants.
In the West we had we had a pair of big comebacks. Troy scored 23 unanswered points to knock off Louisiana in Lafayette. The comeback was capped by a 22 yard TD run by Kimani Vidal with five seconds left in the game. Troy keeps its lead in the West, but just barely. South Alabama scored the last 21 points in their away game against Georgia Southern. The Jaguars won 38-31. With Southern Miss falling, this now truly looks like a neck and neck race the last month of the season.
Speaking of Southern Miss, they have a chance to make some noise in their first season in the Sun Belt. They are on the verge of bowl eligibility and still have an outside shot at the Sun Belt West. In order to do that, however, they need to walk into Conway in primetime on Saturday and come out with a win. It won’t be an easy task, but they have shown flashes of great play this season.
It was a relatively quiet week in terms of Mountain West conference play. While Boise was rekindling its rivalry with BYU, the Mountain West saw some clarity come through on the West. San Jose State and Fresno State both took care of business in their games. The third team now is firmly San Diego State after a 14-10 win over UNLV.
The rest of the season the race to watch is San Jose State vs Fresno State. Fresno has the head to head tiebreaker over the Spartans, and the Bulldogs are rounding into form with Jake Haener coming back. San Jose State goes to San Diego to take on the Aztecs on Friday. San Jose State will go to Vegas on Saturday.
The best G5 finish of the weekend belonged to UTSA and UAB. UAB stormed back to force overtime at home, before Frank Harris and the Roadrunners pulled it out in the second overtime.UTSA remains unbeaten in conference and essentially clinches a spot in the conference game with one more conference win. Their opponent is still up for grabs as North Texas and Western Kentucky are battling it out.
North Texas is the next team to take on the potential spoilers in Birmingham. UAB has shown that their home atmosphere is something to be reckoned with, despite the results this season. Western Kentucky, on the other hand, hosts a spicy Rice squad looking to become a Rice B-Owl. A loss for the Hilltoppers all but clinches the spot to the Mean Green.
The MAC got a little more muddled this week. A couple weeks after Buffalo had an emotional home win over Toledo, the Bulls turned around and got boat raced. Ohio now enters a three way tie at the top of the MAC East with Buffalo and (wait for it) (no seriously wait for it because its that hard to believe) Bowling Green.
Yes Scott Loffler’s Bowling Green team is tied for first in the MAC East and a game away from bowl eligibility with their 13-9 win over Western Michigan at home. The Falcons have a tough end of schedule run to keep this position up, but it’s something we definitely have to note here on the MAC Title Race.
The first of those games for Bowling Green comes next week. They take a trip to Ohio to take on Kent State. The Golden Flashes are backed up to the wall when it comes to bowl eligibility, but a win here can give the Flashes a win to go down the stretch, and help Ohio out in the process.
The main event for the MAC this week is without a doubt Ball State @ Toledo. With the Western Michigan loss to Bowling Green, the winner of this game controls their own destiny in the MAC West. A win for the Rockets all but puts them to Detroit, with every other team in the West having three conference losses.
Independent Island
God Forbid (on hulu) Liberty go away. I guess it’s time to bring them out of the corner watching the other teams in the top ten. They get to participate this time, which I know is a change of pace for them. The Flames went up 21-0 on Arkansas before almost allowing a come back (another thing I didn’t know Liberty was into but to each their own) before standing tall and firm to get a 21-19 victory. They almost certainly won’t be taken seriously as bowl contenders, but they may in fact be that team.
Elsewhere, Air Force takes a hold of the Commander in Chief’s Trophy after, once again, hitting the under with a 13-7 win. If not for some weird stumbles for the Falcons, this team could easily be a top ten G5 team. Elsewhere in the Mountain West, BYU used the power of Jaren Hall and Puka Nacua combo to knock of Boise State. In the 31-28 win, Nacua had an acrobatic TD catch with under two minutes to go. The Broncos drop out of the top ten, but still control their Mountain West destiny.
That’s all I have for you all today! Enjoy the games and THE GAME OF THE CENTURY (GROUP OF 5 VERSION)
I’m mad that GameDay is going to TCU Texas and not UCF Tulane. What a missed opportunity
Bowling Green just wins some close ones. Four wins by four points or less, including that 7 OT win against FCS Eastern Kentucky. With Toledo and Ohio upcoming, they need the win over Kent State whose 3-6 record includes 3 P5 losses to Georgia, Oklahoma, and Washington. The 3-4 mill or so helps fund the Kent State athletic programs but it’s hard to become bowl eligible needing to win six of the other nine games. Kent State is favored by 2.5.
Last week the Sun Belt games seemed loaded – App St v Coastal, USA v Ga Southern; Troy v Louisiana and even Marshall v ODU (12-0). The other three were decided by a touchdown or less. Three teams qualified for bowls and five more need one more win.