College Football has reached just about the halfway point and as most teams are a few weeks into their conference play we are starting to see a separation from the good teams and the teams that just got off to a hot start. This week we look at another ranking of the Top 10 teams from the group of 5 which include the American Conference, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt, and Conference USA. We also take the independent schools besides Notre Dame as they are usually around the same level as the group of 5 schools. We do these rankings every other week alternating with our rankings of the 5 worst power 5 schools which you can see at the bottom. This week as always is dominated by the AAC which has really separated themselves from the other group of 5 schools so far and are arguably as good as the ACC or Pac 12 this year. With our top ten we also take a look at a few teams that just missed the cut this week.
Honorable Mentions:
Buffalo - MAC UAB- C-USA
Utah State- Mountain West
10. BYU - Independent
BYU has arguably the biggest win so far of any of these teams when they went to Madison and knocked off Wisconsin who at the time was a top ten team. Since then the Cougars have lost back to back weeks on the road against a very good Washington team but then this past week at home to Utah State by 25 which is the main reason they dropped so low in this weeks rankings.
9. North Texas - C-USA North Texas dropped their first game of the year two weeks ago at home against LA Tech which isn't a bad loss but the Mean Green may be getting back to earth after that blowout win at Arkansas which really doesn't look as impressive as it did at the time considering how Arkansas season is going. Still a favorite to win the conference but has taken a bit of a step back compared to the other teams on this list.
8. Boise State - Mountain West
A lot of people were very high on Boise State to start the year for good reason but the broncos are now 3-2 after dropping 2 of their last 3 including one this past week at home against San Diego State in which they were held to just 13 point. The Broncos still have a lot of talent but are starting to have questions around them.
7. Troy - Sun Belt
Troy was embarrassed at home by Boise State to start out the year which made it hard to put them ahead of the Broncos but Troy has been rolling since then winning 5 in a row with their closest game being a 5 point win on the road against Nebraska. Appalachian State will be a tough game for the Trojans but they should be significant favorites in every other game this year.
6. San Diego State - Mountain West
As I mentioned with Boise State, San Diego State is coming off of a big win in Boise knocking off the Broncos this past week. San Diego State is 4-1 with their lone loss on the road against Stanford. The Aztecs have also knocked off Arizona State who was ranked 23rd at the time
5. Houston - AAC
This one was hard but I didn't wanna put 4 AAC teams in the top 4 and I think the team ahead of them is very good. Houston's offense has been rolling but their defense has had some question marks and has struggled to stop teams this year including in their lone loss in which they gave up 63 points. Houston is still a very good team and if they can hold teams under 30 they will not lose another game this year.
4. Appalachian State - Sun Belt
The Mountaineers have gone from a good story a decade ago upsetting Michigan to one of the best mid-majors in the country. App State is currently 4-1 with their only loss on the road in overtime at Penn State. I know people say there aren't good losses but if there were, that is one heck of a loss. Since then App State has absolutely rolled their opponents by scores of 45-9, 72-7, 52-7, and 35-9. This is a team that could make a run at a new years day bowl and is no doubt the best group of 5 school not in the AAC.
3. USF - AAC
USF has surprised a lot of people this year so far. The Bulls were expected to be good but after losing Quinton Flowers this past off season due to graduation a lot of people expected a big step back. Credit the Bulls for not missing a beat as they sit at 5-0 and #23 in the nation. The only knock against them is that none of their wins except for Elon have been blowouts but wins are wins and if they keep it up then watch out.
2. Cincinnati - AAC
Talk about a team that came out of nowhere. I don't think anyone would have belived you if you said that the Bearcats would be ranked after 6 weeks but Cincinnati sits here at 6-0 and #25 in the nation. They haven't had any super tough games this year with their only game against a Power 5 team was UCLA which has been one of the worst teams in the nation this year. However the Bearcats will have a chance to prove themselves including back to back games against USF and UCF in November which will likely determine the conference.
1. UCF - AAC
