The American Athletic Conference has struggled in bowl games since the conference’s inception. The AAC’s record of 8-17, with losses to other G5 and lower tier P5 teams has no made a great impression for the P6 movement. Sure, there have been some great wins like UCF in 2013 and Houston in 2015 (as far as the major bowl games go), but the conference has never done great all at once. This is the year that they can turn it around and potentially flip that record to 14-17. This is not an easy feat, but if they were able to go 5-1 or 6-0, the conference would get enormous respect.
Fresno State vs. Houston The biggest thing Houston proves in winning this game is showing how far ahead the AAC is over the Mountain West. Fresno State is arguably their best team and Houston is the 4th best team in the AAC. If Houston were to win this game, it would be devastating for the Mountain West. The number one team in a G5 conference needs to be able to beat anyone in the G5 conferences. This may not be the case in a really low-scoring affair.
This also proves that Houston is not out of the race for next year’s AAC bid. Houston has all the tools to keep on running with Ed Oliver returning for one more year, and D’Eriq King giving some stability at quarterback. This team will return plenty of starters, and puts the Cougars in great shape to win their division after Memphis will lose Riley Ferguson.
The last big thing it proves is Major Applewhite being the right fit. Many were skeptical of the Applewhite hiring last year, but he has given the Cougars a nice season. They were able to get an upset win over USF and got a solid bowl game in paradise. Applewhite will have proven himself very capable with a good bowl win.
I think the biggest game will be UCF versus Auburn. Not just because it’s for the New Year’s six bowl but because until last week Auburn was essentially a deadlock to play in the college football playoff. If you have UCF beat Auburn then it shows that we can hang with teams that are within the college football playoff.
That’ll be a tough matchup for UCF, but very similar to our bowl game against FSU when it comes to atmosphere and attitude. Gameplay will probably be much different though.
I do agree with the premise for the article, though. One of the things mentioned when Aresco started the P6 push was our horrible record last year in bowl games and one of the reasons for not sticking a fork in the Big12 was their good record. Conference needs to win these games.
1.) Frost is now taking his whole staff from UCF to Nebraska. If they coach UCF in the Peach Bowl, they may have good intentions, but that staff is and should be focused more on the future than the past.
2.) There is a possibility that Frost will not coach this game. Well, we know how that works outs: Texan Bowl versus TCU and Las Vegas Bowl versus San Diego State.
Here is the jist on that. During the regular season we totally dominate the other G5 conferences.
And are on par with other P5 conferences head to head. However, the media (ESPN lead) is making a story of the AAC poor record in bowl games (without mentioning how we have generally be playing without a head coach).
Rather than talking about the hurdles that our conference has to deal with and UCF in the Peach Bowl in particular, the media (ESPN in particular) will use it as justification that we are just one of the five G5 conferences and are not worthy of consideration with the P5 conferences.