1. American Athletic Conference
The Sun Belt might have a nice team in Appalachian State, and good one in Louisiana.
Boise State is a major player from the Mountain West, and the MAC and Conference USA will come up with their share of upsets, but the American Athletic Conference have more high end teams than anyone else, and there should be more.
Tulsa was better than the 4-8 record – the schedule was brutal – and East Carolina was a major problem for Cincinnati and SMU in wild shootouts. A little more defense would be nice for both of them, but if they’re your questionable teams – especially with the dead weight of UConn gone – your conference is okay.
And let’s just assume new USF head coach Jeff Scott will do a little more with a team that couldn’t find any consistent offensive production throughout last season.
Everyone else in the league went bowling last season – except for Houston.
The first season under Dana Holgorsen ended on September 19th when Tulane pulled a thriller out of the fire. However, there’s too much talent, and Holgorsen is too good, for the Cougars to come up with another 4-8ish clunker.
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Tulane will be good again, SMU’s offense will keep on rolling – even if the D is going to be an issue – and Navy’s 2019 showed that 2018 was just a blip in the Ken Niumatalolo era. All three should be in the bowl mix again.
Temple might have bombed its bowl game, but Rod Carey put together a great season in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year.
And then there are the big guys – and Temple, Houston and Navy could be up in this range, too.
Ryan Silverfield is inheriting a heater of a Memphis team that should be every bit as strong as last year’s version that got the New Year’s Six nod. Cincinnati has a brutal schedule, but Luke Fickell has his best team yet, and UCF is still UCF.
All three of those teams might be better than anyone in the other Group of Five conferences.
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