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UCF got all the national attention it could hope for on Saturday with ESPN's College GameDay in town in the morning and that network's top broadcasting tandem working the Saturday night game in prime time. The Golden Knights won for a 23rd straight time and clinched home field advantage for the conference championship game with a 38-13 romp over Cincinnati. But in the end, all the hoopla will do little to change minds or sway the committee on where to rank UCF.
The Congrove Computer Rankings at CollegeFootballPoll.com had no movement among the top 7 teams, and UCF only ticked up one notch from 10th to 9th. Ahead of the Knights, in order, are Clemson, Alabama, Notre Dame, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Georgia and Washington State.
UCF's opponent in the conference title game will be the winner of the Houston-Memphis game on Friday in Memphis. The Tigers are a 6.67-point computer favorite to win that contest and set up a rematch of of last year's championship game which the Knights won 62-55 in double-OT.
Pitt, whom UCF destroyed 45-14 on September 29, clinched its first ACC Coastal division title with a 34-13 romp at Wake Forest. The Panthers are 5-1 since the loss to the Knights with the only setback being a 19-14 loss at Notre Dame.
Meanwhile, Ohio State had nearly played itself out of any hopes for a Big Ten East division title until Maryland bailed out the Buckeyes by needlessly going for 2 in the bottom half of the first overtime. The Buckeyes wound up prevailing 52-51 and will host Michigan Saturday as a 2.75-point underdog in the de facto division championship game. The winner plays Northwestern in Indianapolis.
Iowa State was eliminated from the Big 12 race with its 24-10 loss at Texas, while West Virginia was a surprising 45-41 loser at Oklahoma State, and Oklahoma was a 55-40 winner at home versus Kansas. That means the Longhorns are in the Big 12 title game with a win at Kansas, and would face the winner of the Oklahoma-West Virginia game in Morgantown.
Northern Illinois clinched the MAC West on Tuesday night, even though the Huskies weren't playing. Ball State upset Western Michigan 42-41 in overtime when the Broncos failed on a 2-point conversion attempt in the extra stanza. The loss eliminated WMU from the divisional race. Northern Illinois celebrated by going out and losing 13-7 the very next night to the Miami RedHawks.while Buffalo, on the same night, was destroyed 52-17 at Ohio to prevent themselves from claiming the East crown.
FIU holds the upper hand on Middle Tennessee in the CUSA East division title race. UAB clinced the West division a week ago. The Panthers will face UAB in Birmingham in the conference championship game if FIU wins at home over Marshall on Saturday, or if MTSU loses at home this week to UAB. Middle Tennessee only advances if it pulls off the win over the Blazers AND the Panthers lose at home to Marshall.
Utah State and Boise State knocked off Colorado State and New Mexico, respectively, to set up next Saturday's showdown in Boise as the de facto MWC Mountain division championship game. The Broncos beat the Lobos in 45-14 rout on Friday, but the Aggies only won 29-24 at Colorado State on Saturday because the receiver of a Hail Mary TD pass was ruled on replay to have stepped out-of-bounds prior to catching what would have been the game-winner for the Rams. Utah State had just taken the lead 43 seconds earlier with a TD pass.
Fresno State clinched the MWC West division with a 23-14 win over San Diego State.
Utah beat Colorado 30-7 and Arizona State lost 31-29 at Oregon to give the Utes their first PAC-12 title game appearance. Washington and Washington State were also winners over the weekend, making their Apple Cup rivalry clash the de facto North division championship game on Friday in Pullman.
Alabama and Georgia continued their winning ways as they get ready to face-off in Atlanta in two weeks. The Tide had an uncharacteristic first half vs. The Citadel but broke open a 10-10 game with 33 unanswered points to start the second half and went on to a 50-17 win. Georgia, meanwhile, crushed UMass 66-27.
In the Sun Belt, Troy visits Appalachian State in a de facto East division championship game on Saturday. The winner will host the first Sun Belt championship game vs. the West division winner which could be Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette or Louisiana-Monroe.
UCF, Pitt, Utah, Fresno State and Northern Illinois joined Clemson, Northwestern, UAB, Georgia and Alabama as teams that have clinched a berth in their conference championship game. Here is how every conference and division looks after this past week's games.
American - UCF (clinched East) vs. winner of Houston at Memphis (West)
ACC - Clemson (clinched Atlantic) vs. Pittsburgh (clinched Coastal)
Big Ten - Northwestern (clinched west) vs. Michigan or Ohio State (East)
Big 12 - Oklahoma vs. West Virginia or Texas.
CUSA - UAB (clinched West) vs. FIU or Middle Tennessee (East)
MAC - Northern Illinois (clinched West) vs. Buffalo most likely, but Miami and Ohio still in it (East).
MWC - Fresno State (clinched West) vs. winner of Utah State at Boise State (Mountain)
PAC 12 - Utah (clinched South) vs. winner of Washington at Washington State (North)
SEC - Georgia (clinched Eastern) v.s Alabama (clinched Western)
Sun Belt - Troy at Appalachian State winner (East) will host either Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette or Louisiana-Monroe (West)
71 teams have reached 6 wins to attain bowl eligibility and 22 others are knocking on the door with 5 wins. 78 spots are available.
Buffalo and Syracuse are each definitely bowl-bound for the first time since 2013. Louisiana-Monroe is eligible for the first time since 2012 at 6-4. Tulane is on the cusp of its first bowl bid since 2013 with a 5-5 record.
The longest current bowl absence streak belongs to Kansas (2008).
Ole Miss (5-5) is ineligible due to NCAA probation.
The newest kid on the block, Liberty (4-6), locked down a two-year bowl agreement with the Cure Bowl before it ever played a down of FBS football. The contract for 2018 and 2019 says the Flames will be called upon as the first backup option if the American and Sun Belt conferences can't fill their available slots in the bowl.
The SEC held its annual "let's beat up on cupcakes week". Alabama was an absurd 70.27-point favorite over The Citadel and won 50-17, while Florida was favored by 47.30 over Idaho and won 63-10. South Carolina was a 50.18-point choice over UT-Chattanooga and won 49-9.
Even those SEC schools that weren't playing FCS schools had seemingly easy matches. LSU was favored by 47.82 versus Rice and won 42-10; Auburn was a 36.56-point pick vs. Liberty and won 53-0, and Georgia was a 44.52-point favorite over UMass and won 66-27.
6 games this week pit FBS schools against FCS members. Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Army, North Carolina and Old Dominion all faced FCS schools and all won.
FBS teams are 103-7 (.936) vs. the FCS this season, and 1,322-124 (.914) since 2003.
Here are all of the FCS victories over FBS teams, so far, in 2018:
August 30: UC Davis 44, San Jose State 31
September 1: Villanova 19, Temple 17
September 1: Northern Arizona 30, UTEP 10
September 1: Nicholls State 26, Kansas 23 (OT)
September 2: North Carolina A&T 28, East Carolina 23
September 8: Maine 31, Western Kentucky 28
September 22: Illinois State 35, Colorado State 19
UCF - Won 23 straight overall (FBS longest), Won 16 straight conference games including AAC title last year (FBS longest). Won 38-13 at home vs. Cincinnati on Saturday.
Alabama - Won 25 straight home games (FBS longest). Won 50-17 at home vs. FCS member The Citadel on Saturday.
Oklahoma - Won 19 straight true road games (FBS longest). Won 55-40 at home vs. Kansas on Saturday.
Rice - Lost 11 straight overall (FBS longest). Lost 42-10 at LSU on Saturday.
(NOTE: Rice also owns the longest current conference game losing streak at 14.)
Charlotte - Lost 12 straight road games (tied FBS longest). Lost 42-35 at home vs. FIU on Saturday.
San Jose State - Lost 12 straight road games (tied FBS longest). Lost 21-12 at home vs Nevada on Saturday.