Group of Five: 2017 college football Week 2 power rankings

The top five in the preseason Group of Five Power Rankings all won over Week 0 and Week 1. Which teams lead the New Year’s Six race as we head into Week 2?

There was no shakeup at the top of the Group of Five Power Rankings during the long opening week. The preseason top five all won their opening contests over the eight-day stretch between the last Saturday of August and the first Saturday of September. It was a relatively chaos-free week for the favorites. Each continue to vie to earn their respective conference championships and a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game.

There was some shifting in the bottom half of the top 10, though, as teams lost. There was also shifting as other teams lost opportunities to play. The most notable omission from the preseason Power Rankings is Houston. The Cougars are effectively in a no mans land, and will be reconsidered among the Group of Five hopefuls as soon as they get to play their first game. But because Hurricane Harvey postponed their road opener at UTSA, Houston is in limbo at the moment and drops out into a holding pattern outside the top 10.

It must also be noted that not all the teams that lost dropped out of the top 10. After all, these are no longer the BCS days when a defeat doomed any chance mid-majors had at a major bowl berth. When a Group of Five team acquits itself well in defeat, they still have a shot at the New Year’s Six.

Now that the season is officially under way for all but two Group of Five schools, let’s take another look at the pecking order. Click ahead to read more about each of the top 10 teams in the race for the New Year’s Six in the Week 2 Group of Five Power Rankings.