Central Florida’s loss to Pitt has opened up the race for the best team in the AAC, CUSA, MAC, Mountain West and Sun Belt. With a trip to the New Year’s Six bowls on the line, UCF’s thrilling loss to the Panthers is a huge deal for lots of teams. However, the AAC is still the Knights’ to lose and they will still likely be the highest rated team out of those conferences if they can run the table. Boise State of the Mountain West will jump past UCF in the polls for now, but they would likely fall back behind the Knights should they lose and UCF keeps winning. Those two teams are clearly the best right now, but if they lose, the rest of the AAC and Mountain West and the top teams in the CUSA, MAC and Sun Belt, will be hoping to have a chance to pass UCF and Boise State.
American: Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Temple, Tulane
ACC: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
Big 12: Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech
Big Ten: Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin
C-USA: Florida Atlantic, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, North Texas, Southern Miss, UAB
Independent: Army, BYU, Notre Dame
MAC: Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
MWC: Air Force, Boise State, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, Utah State
Pac-12: Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon, USC, Utah, Washington, Washington State
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas A&M
Sun Belt: Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Louisiana, Troy
