A few big names drop out of the New Year’s Six hunt after falling hard last weekend. Who makes the cut in the Group of Five Power Rankings for Week 9?
So long, Navy! Adios, San Diego State!
Week 8 of the 2017 college football season ran fairly in line with expectations, at least among the Power Five conferences. Favorites mostly won across the board, as only two games featured a matchup of AP Top 25 teams.
Looking down the slate of games at the Group of Five schools, however, offered a chance to see upsets in action. Navy, it must be admitted, was an underdog at home against No. 20 UCF. But the Midshipmen were ranked just a few weeks ago, and the showdown against the Knights seemed like an opportunity to climb back up into the polls. Instead, UCF kept up its surge toward a high-stakes showdown with South Florida on Thanksgiving weekend, as they took down Navy 31-21.
But there was an even worse loss on Saturday…
The Navy loss was at least understandable. Later on Saturday night, the west coast yielded yet another shocker. Fresno State went to Qualcomm Stadium and toppled San Diego State 27-3, holding Rashaad Penny under 100 yards and building a two-game lead in the MWC West standings. At this point, the Aztecs have to win out to even have a shot at a third straight league crown. More importantly, they now need the Bulldogs to lose three of their last four conference games.
The late return from San Diego flipped the script on the Group of Five Power Rankings, as a team that was atop the list just two weeks ago is now out of the Top 10 entirely. The losses opened the door for new teams to climb up and assert a claim on New Year’s Six contention. Because a conference championship is requisite to be considered for the Group of Five spot in a major bowl game, the Aztecs and Midshipmen are out of the equation barring chaos in the AAC.
With Navy and San Diego State both falling hard, who made the cut to take their places? Keep reading to see who heads into Week 9 action as one of the top mid-major teams in the country in this week’s Group of Five Power Rankings.