Group of Five Power Rankings 2019, Week 5: Down goes UCF

When UCF lost at Pitt, it completely flipped the script on the New Year’s Six race. Here are the Group of Five Power Rankings as we head into Week 5.

Over the past few years, the top spot in the Group of Five Power Rankings has been dominated by Central Florida. First taking over the No. 1 ranking among Group of Five teams back in Week 8 of the 2017 season, UCF has parlayed their success into two straight New Year’s Six appearances, a share of the 2017 national championship, and a 27-game regular season winning streak.

All good things must come to an end eventually, though, and Week 4 proved the breaking point for the Knights. As Pitt scored a late touchdown on a fourth-down trick play, it rendered UCF mortal.

Of course, this did not have too deleterious an effect on their placement in the polls, where Josh Heupel’s team sits No. 22 in the AP Top 25 and No. 23 in the Coaches Poll. And the Knights, despite the death of their College Football Playoff dreams, is still very much alive in the race for both the American Athletic Conference title and the automatic New Year’s Six berth.

At this point, however, the road to the top of the Group of Five pecking order no longer ends in Orlando. Who ultimately took over the top spot in the rankings, and how far did the Knights fall? Keep reading as we break down the latest Group of Five Power Rankings as we head into the final weekend of September.