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American Conference power rankings, where it's all up for grabs in final week
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- American Conference power rankings, where it's all up for grabs in final week
For the first time in more than a month, we made it through a weekend of American Conference football without major chaos .
The top teams mostly held serve, and the Alamodome victimized another conference team that went to San Antonio as a favorite.
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The title race is still on, but there's a clear pecking order. Tulane is likely to be the highest-ranked team in the Nov. 25 College Football Playoff rankings and assuming it beats Charlotte this weekend, will host the conference title game. North Texas is likely to be the Green Wave 's opponent, but Navy is still alive.
And for the first time since early October? We don't have a change at No. 1.
1. North Texas (10-1)
Last week (1):Beat Rice, 56-24
What happened:The Mean Green were down early before storming back behind yet another dominant offensive performance highlighted by a conference-record 295 receiving yards by Wyatt Young. Coach Eric Morris' team has the No. 1 offense in the country in both scoring and total yards. Imagine if this team (redshirt freshman quarterback, true freshman running back, sophomore leading receiver) stayed together for a couple of years . . .
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Next up:Temple
2. Tulane (9-2)
Last week (2):Beat Temple, 37-13
What happened:This looked like a potentially tricky game for the Green Wave, but coach Jon Sumrall's team had no problems getting another road win. Tulane looks like it has rebounded from a rough stretch of performances in the middle of the season and is the favorite to reach the CFP.
Next up:Charlotte
3. Navy (8-2)
Last week (3):Idle
Next up:at Memphis
4. USF (8-3)
Last week (5):Beat UAB, 48-18
What happened:USF is running a social media campaign for quarterback Byrum Brown to win the Heisman Trophy. He had another dynamic performance (416 total yards, five TDs). If the Bulls hadn't lost to Memphis and Navy, they'd probably get more traction. This might be the best team in the conference, but they likely won't get to prove it in the postseason.
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Next up:Rice
5. ECU (7-4)
Last week (4):Lost to UTSA, 58-24
What happened:The Pirates fell victim to the Alamodome. There's no use fighting it anymore — UTSA simply has something supernatural going on inside that building. ECU quarterback Katin Houser became the latest person in this conference to accuse the Roadrunners of pumping in crowd noise, too.
Next up:at FAU
6. Memphis (8-3)
Last week (6):Idle
Next up:Navy
7. UTSA (6-5)
Last week (9):Beat ECU, 58-24
What happened:The Roadrunners continued to build on maybe the most improbable stat in college football: UTSA has never lost a conference home game under coach Jeff Traylor. The oddsmakers had ECU favored in this game, but they clearly didn't take the supernatural into effect. Now, if there was a way to transfer that energy to road games . . .
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Next up:Army
8. Temple (5-6)
Last week (8):Lost to Tulane, 37-13
What happened:The late-season slide continued for the Owls , though they were clearly overmatched in this game. Coach K.C. Keeler's team has lost three in a row and looks like it'll miss out on bowl eligibility.
Next up:at North Texas
9. Army (5-5)
Last week (7):Lost to Tulsa, 26-25
What happened:The Black Knights lost a game they really needed to win to get bowl-eligible. They blew a fourth-quarter lead, then couldn't run the clock out with less than two minutes to play, and lost on a late field goal.
Next up:at UTSA
10. FAU (4-7)
Last week (10):Lost to UConn, 48-45
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What happened:It was a pretty good performance by the Owls against a good UConn team, but in the end FAU couldn't make enough plays to pull out a win. There have been plenty of encouraging signs in coach Zach Kittley's first year, though.
Next up:ECU
11. Rice (5-6)
Last week (11):Lost to North Texas, 56-24
What happened:Things were going well until they weren't. Rice was up 14-0, then gave up 42 points in a row. That isn't going to result in a win.
Next up:at USF
12. Tulsa (4-7)
Last week (12):Beat Army, 26-25
What happened:Tre Lamb got his first conference win as Tulsa's coach, and there's something to build on going into next season.
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Next up:UAB
13. UAB (3-8)
Last week (13):Lost to USF, 48-18
What happened:The discussion of this program obviously has to start with what happened the morning before this game, when two players were stabbed allegedly by another player. It's tough to know where to start here, but there can't be a program in the country more desperate for a complete reset than this one.
Next up:at Tulsa
14. Charlotte (1-10)
Last week (14):Lost to Georgia, 35-3
What happened:Coach Tim Albin's pregame news conference included a question about whether he'd use the warmup period to scout Georgia players as future transfers. His postgame news conference included the quote: "You can only have so much Tito's." The in-between part went about how you'd expect.
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Next up:at Tulane
Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: American Conference football power rankings as North Texas holds serve
