Conference Power Rankings: Big Ten Better than Expected in Week 1
7. American Athletic
The American Athletic Conference was a Jekyll and Hyde Conference over the weekend, and it started on Thursday night. Temple scored a blowout win against Vanderbilt on the road, and at the same time Tulane suffered a bad loss to Tulsa.
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But then Friday came, and the AAC embarrassed itself. Connecticut got blown out in a match-up against BYU, and Houston, in a year that it is trying to prove itself as a strong contender, got blown out at home by UT-San Antonio, 27-7. That’s a terrible look for the conference before Saturday even comes into play, and it was more than enough to drop it below the Mountain West Conference in the rankings of non-Power Five conferences.
On Saturday, UCF played Penn State close as expected, and Memphis and East Carolina looked nice in their blowout wins against inferior competition. But South Florida had to struggle to get by Western Carolina, and SMU, who is supposed to be a middle of the pack AAC team, could have put on a better showing than it did in its 45-0 loss to Baylor. Unfortunately, the conference did nothing to prove it is better than the Mountain West. So it belongs at No. 7. So much for begging to be part of the Power Five.