The SEC is still the top conference in college football, but who can move up to take the Big Ten’s spot at No. 2 in the initial conference rankings for the uniquely weird 2020 season?
College football will be back underway in the ACC and the Big 12 this weekend.
Our favorite sport returned two weeks with a pair of FCS schools duking it out in Montgomery, Alabama between the Austin Peay Governors and the UAB Blazers. Though no Power 5 team has played this season, we did see members of the AAC, Conference USA, the Sun Belt and a few national independents begin their seasons last weekend. So which conference reigns supreme?
Without the Big Ten and Pac-12 playing this fall, the American is a defacto Power conference this season but a large gap exists between the AAc and the remaining Power 3 leagues
7. Sun Belt (Group of 5, 1-2 overall)
The Sun Belt played three non-conference games over the weekend. Though the South Alabama Jaguars got one of the most impressive wins in the early part of the season with their shocking road upset over the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, the Texas State Bobcats lost at home to the SMU Mustangs and the Arkansas State Red Wolves fell on the road to the Memphis Tigers.
The Sun Belt may get out of the cellar at some point, as we expect the Appalachian State Mountaineers to be one of the better Group of 5 teams in the country. Truth be told, somebody has to step up. Maybe it’s one of the Georgia schools or one of the Louisiana schools? We do need to give South Alabama props for getting Southern Miss’s head coach to resign after one game.
6. Conference USA (Group of 5, 4-2 overall)
No FBS conference played more games in Week 1 than did Conference USA. Getting the Group of 5 conference wins were the Marshall Thundering Herd, the UAB Blazers, the North Texas Mean Green and oddly enough, the UTEP Miners. However, both Southern Miss and the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders suffered embarrassing losses to South Alabama and Army, respectively.
Despite a winning record over the weekend, none of Conference USA’s wins were over FBS teams. Though we do need to give Marshall props for its shut out of Eastern Kentucky, we need to infinitely ridicule Southern Miss for losing at home to a team that doesn’t win on the road and for Middle Tennessee’s inability to know how to read a clock inside of a minute before halftime.
5. FBS Independents (Group of 5, 2-0 overall)
Of course, we’re going to keep tabs on the FBS Independents who are gonna damn the torpedoes and play a season any. Though we’re going to need to see a bit more out of this island of misfit toys, how can you not be impressed with what the Army Black Knights did to Middle Tennessee or what the BYU Cougars did to the sinking Navy Midshipmen in Annapolis on Labor Day night?
Though their schedules are going to look wonky this season, Army is going to play a full slate, while BYU is only going to get about eight games. There may not have been two more thorough beatdowns by FBS teams over other FBS teams than the whooping the Black Knights and the Cougars gave the opposition on Labor Day weekend. It’s hard not to be impressed by them.
4. American Athletic Conference (Group of 5, 2-1 overall)
If there is any Group of 5 conference unrealistically capable of usurping a Power 5 conference in any future rankings, it has to be The American. There are about four teams at the top of the AAC that will vie for possibly two New Year’s Six bowl berth. Though this year is weird enough that maybe one of them will make the College Football Playoff, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
On Labor Day weekend, the AAC went 2-1. Memphis beat Arkansas State, while SMU, a.k.a “Party City”, survived a thrilling game on the road vs. Texas State. Memphis will contend for conference supremacy and SMU will be in that second tier. But my goodness, Navy embarrassed itself in the worst way possible on Labor Day in primetime. BYU sank Navy into the Chesapeake Bay.
3. Big 12 Conference (Power 5, 0-0 overall)
As we get to the three Power 5 conferences that haven’t played games yet but will soon, it’s going to take a monumental collapse for any of these conferences to fall out of the top three. So when it comes to sorting out conferences with playoff locks, that’s exactly how we’re going to do this: How many teams in each Power 5 conference can make the playoff and how many can win it?
There are about four teams who can make it out of the Big 12: The Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns for sure, possibly the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Iowa State Cyclones. But even if any of them make, it would be shocking to see a Big 12 team play for a national championship this year. That’s why they’re third.
2. Atlantic Coast Conference (Power 5, 0-0 overall)
Like the Big 12, the ACC will begin play this weekend with many games. Though the ACC doesn’t have a ton of teams who can contend for the College Football Playoff, it does have the presumptive favorite to win it all in the Clemson Tigers and a team capable of making it in and getting to the title bout in none other than the national independent Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
What hurts the ACC’s shot at getting the top spot is who is the Power 5 conference’s third-best team after Clemson and Notre firmly as No. 1 and No. 2? How teams like the Florida State Seminoles, Louisville Cardinals, Miami Hurricanes, North Carolina Tar Heels and the Virginia Tech Hokies will determine if the ACC has any depth to it beyond its top-two teams for this season.
1. Southeastern Conference (Power 5, 0-0 overall)
There was no other choice here, so don’t lie to yourself. Even if the SEC doesn’t have the presumptive favorite to win the College Football Playoff, there are at least six teams with a decent shot of making the final four: The Alabama Crimson Tide, the Auburn Tigers, the Florida Gators, the Georgia Bulldogs, the LSU Tigers and the Texas A&M Aggies. Look for two of them to get in.
While those six teams should be good, it is important that the middle tier of the SEC holds its own this fall. If teams like the Kentucky Wildcats, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Tennessee Volunteers can hold their own, then the SEC will have the best conference in college football this season going away. The bottom of the SEC is bad, but you can say that about any conference.
Overall, expect to see a lot of shakeup between No. 4 and No. 7 this year. Though the AAC is in the driver’s seat for No. 4, maybe Conference USA or the FBS Independents can make a charge. While the SEC may stay at No. 1 throughout the fall, it will be interesting to see if the Big 12 can surpass the ACC or either of them have what it takes to take the crown for themselves as the very best.
Will your conference remain better than someone else’s conference throughout the 2020 season?
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