After an opening weekend where several teams made statements, who is ready to challenge UCF in the Group of Five race? Here are the Week 1 power rankings.
Right out of the gate, there was a handful of Group of Five programs that made major statements that will reverberate over the course of the season. A half-dozen schools took down Power Five opponents over the long kickoff to the season between Week 0 and Week 1 that set them up to make a real charge at the New Year’s Six.
Of course, there is still a major roadblock in the form of UCF. As the hegemonic force in the Group of Five over the past two years, the Knights show no signs of easily conceding that crown. While they took on a much more manageable challenge in their opener, UCF did exactly what one expects of a powerhouse playing against a cupcake opponent.
Was that enough to keep Josh Heupel’s team at the top of the Group of Five heap this week? Or did another squad do enough to supplant the Knights atop the mid-major hierarchy? Keep reading for this week’s top 10 programs at this early juncture of the race for the automatic access into a major bowl game.