Group of Five: Week 7 Access Bowl Power Rankings

At this point Navy is a tough team to evaluate. They are the only Group of Five team that has yet to play half of its regular-season schedule after the postponement of last week’s game at East Carolina. The Midshipmen have a statement win after taking down a tough Houston team in one of the biggest upsets of the year to date. They already have three conference victories to sit atop the AAC West. But they also lost to Air Force in a showdown toward determining which service academy wins the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. That same Air Force team has lost two straight and sits under .500 in Mountain West play at this point, looking less likely with each passing week to defend as MWC Mountain champs.

Navy cannot focus too deeply on the misfortunes of others, however. If they win the AAC, they will be ranked and right there in the hunt for the Group of Five invite to the Cotton Bowl. Next week the Midshipmen host Memphis in another major game toward determining who takes the AAC West. They finish the month of October with another tricky game on Friday night at South Florida. Then they have back-to-back home games against perennial non-conference nemesis Notre Dame and Tulsa before rounding out the season on the road. They finish the regular season with the make-up game against East Carolina and a trip to Dallas to face SMU. If they win the conference and play in the AAC championship, they’ll still have the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia to finish off as well.