Group of Five Football Power Rankings, Week 12: ECU, WKU making late-season surge

Louisiana continues to impress, winning nine straight games after losing the season opener. The Ragin’ Cajuns can light it up on offense and their defense does an outstanding job as well. This team has a ridiculous point differential this season, accounting for 312 points and allowing just 192 this season. Louisiana’s balanced attack (two rushers with 600+ total rushing yards and 2,100+ passing yards) will have them finish as the premiere college football team in the state of Louisiana this season, regardless of the team’s final games against Liberty and Louisiana-Monroe.

Houston is holding strong with a nine-game winning streak of their own. However, they’ve got a weeknight game against Memphis coming up—a team they have failed to beat since Barack Obama was President. Will this be the year the Cougars finally beat Memphis? It’s certainly possible with the Cougars’ defense getting back to where they were early in the season, allowing just 8 points against Temple.

BYU had a Bye Week and didn’t play last week. They look now to facing Georgia Southern and finishing the season at Southern Cal. Will the Cougars be able to finish with 10 wins for just the third time since 2010?

UTSA kept their streak alive, squeaking out a 10-point win against Southern Miss. They mustered a near-season low 27 points against a bad Golden Eagles team. Well, low for UTSA—the team averages close to 39 points per game. Their game against UAB will be their toughest since a scare against WKU in early October. UTSA isn’t used to playing in close games, so all eyes will be on the Roadrunners to see if they have the goods to play a complete game from start to finish, even if it is close.

The Bearcats continue to chug along, facing only slight resistance from conference foes. However, all of that changes this week as Cincinnati has finally met a formidable foe in SMU. Once ranked a couple of weeks ago, the Mustangs have the firepower to hang with the top-ranked Bearcats. Which SMU team will show up, though? The one that got beat by Houston and Memphis in consecutive weeks or the team that started the season 7-0? With a possible trip to the College Football Playoffs on the line, QB Desmond Ridder and head coach Luke Fickel are going to be more than prepared to fend off the Mustangs.