Only three Group of Five teams remain undefeated. Eight other teams have just one loss. How do they all sort out in the Week 8 Group of Five Power Rankings?
There is nothing in the stipulations around the Group of Five access point into the New Year’s Six that says a team with fewer losses will automatically get picked over a conference champion with an extra loss or two by comparison. In 2014, the first year of the College Football Playoff system, Boise State was an 11-2 Mountain West champion and almost certainly would have reached the Fiesta Bowl even if Marshall ran the table as an undefeated C-USA champ.
(The Thundering Herd, of course, lost 67-66 in overtime to Western Kentucky on the final week of the regular season. Doc Holliday’s team went on to win the conference, but the selection committee opted for a Broncos team that played a tougher schedule over the Marshall side with one fewer loss.)
That said, in practice teams with fewer losses get longer looks this time of the season. And at this point, only 11 Group of Five teams enter the back half of the 2019 regular season still undefeated or with only one loss. One league, the MAC, is not represented as its members continue to beat up on one another.
This elite 11 is almost certainly the group from which the New Year’s Six participant will be selected. So, in this week’s Group of Five Power Rankings, we will take a look at how each of these 11 programs stack up against one another in that battle for the New Year’s Six.