This week is a put-up-or-shut-up weekend for a few teams in the Group of Five.
I’ve banging the drum for all season long for No. 18 Army, and this weekend the Black Knights take on No. 6 Notre Dame team in historic Yankee Stadium. Also on the slate, things can get clearer in Conference USA with a matchup between Sam Houston and Jacksonville State — both of which are still neophytes to the FBS landscape, having jumped up to the subdivision last season. Both teams are playing for a spot in the Conference USA Championship Game.
Elsewhere in the Group of Five landscape, teams are trying to stack wins and maybe earn some style points along the way.
Last week, we saw a few teams like Washington State, Louisiana and Western Kentucky take losses, which just hammers the point home that it is hard to win games in college football no matter the conference.
Group of Five rankings remain important. Though these conferences get a significantly lower financial guarantee from the new 12-team CFP, they are on a more equitable field when it comes to the competition: The four highest ranked conference champions get byes, and the five highest ranked champs get auto-bids, but nothing is to say that the supposed “Power Four” are guaranteed those four byes or four of those five spots; if a Group of Five team were to outrank, hypothetically, the Big 12 champion, it would get a bye and home game. And with those spots comes financial windfalls based on success in the tournament.
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Group of Five Power Rankings
No longer ranked: Western Kentucky
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