The race for the best team out of the American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt is heating up. Right now there are three prime candidates to head to, most likely, the Cotton Bowl. For the moment we are projecting Boise State, but they had some struggles on Saturday night against Colorado State. Their toughest game could come Thursday against BYU, especially with such a quick turnaround. Trips to Wyoming, Hawaii and Air Force will not be easy either. Houston will likely make it if they win out, but they too struggled on Saturday in a 38-31 win over Tulsa. The Cougars also host Louisville on November 17th and a second loss would leave the door wide open for Boise State and Western Michigan. The Broncos went to Akron and crushed a good Zips team 41-0. Their season opening win over Northwestern looks a lot better now than it did a couple weeks ago too. WMU has no tough road games left and it could all come down to the season finale at home against Toledo to decide who plays in the MAC title game. But even if the Broncos win out, they will likely need Houston and Boise State both to lose somewhere along the way.
American: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Memphis, Navy, South Florida, Temple, Tulsa
ACC: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Big 12: Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, West Virginia
Big Ten: Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
C-USA: Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, Western Kentucky
Independent: Army, BYU
MAC: Akron, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
MWC: Air Force, Boise State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Diego State, Wyoming
Pac-12: Arizona State, California, Colorado, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State
SEC: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M
Sun Belt: Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Idaho, South Alabama, Troy
