Group of Five Power Rankings, Week 11: SMU, Air Force in free fall

Coastal Carolina took care of business on the road at Georgia Southern 28-8 despite losing star quarterback Grayson McCall to an upper-body injury. He’s listed as out indefinitely. The Chants have a relatively subdued schedule to end the season—their final three opponents have a combined record of 12-15 (Georgia State, Texas State, and South Alabama).

Houston continues to fly under the radar with Cincinnati garnering most of the AAC spotlight. They have uncharacteristically been involved in shootouts the past two games, winning by a combined 99-79 against SMU and South Florida. Two road games (Temple, UConn) and a homestand against Memphis are all that stand in the way of Houston finishing the season 11-1.

After dropping consecutive games to Boise State and Baylor, BYU has been on a revenge tour winning three straight against Washington State, Virginia, and Idaho State. The Cougars have just two games remaining on the schedule: Georgia Southern and Southern Cal. Running back Tyler Allgeier has quietly racked up 1,167 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns this season.

Texas-San Antonio continues to steamroll opponents, this time blowing out UTEP 44-23 on the road. If they can get through Southern Miss, UAB, and North Texas, they’ll finish their Cinderella season undefeated and a case for being the best Group of Five team in all of college football. QB Frank Harris (2,079 passing yards) and running back Sincere McCormick (1,060 rushing yards) are arguably the best QB-RB tandem outside the Power Five.

Cincinnati continues to win, but in unconvincingly dull fashion: a 7 point win at Navy, a 9 point win at Tulane, and an 8-point win vs Tulsa have left critics of the Group of Five darling shaking their heads in disapproval. Are the critics right to have excluded the Bearcats from the CFP Rankings? Is there a viable path for the Group of Five to finally be represented in the College Football Playoffs? They will likely need some help from other teams to jump from No. 6 into the top 4, but as we’ve seen throughout the season—anything is possible.