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Predictive Power Rankings: Where Are the Mid-Majors?

We turn again to our new favorite site, PredictionMachine, to take a look at their projected power rankings and see who the ten best and ten worst Group of Five programs might be this season.

Casey Sapio-USA TODAY Sports

So once again we were over at this delightful website we've discovered. They run simulations. A whole heaping helping of simulations - upwards of 50,000 - to try and predict what might happen this coming season. We already showed you what the predictions were for each conference's standings, but how about the overall rankings for our Group of Five teams? Let's start with the projected ten best programs:

Top Ten Group of Five Teams

38 UCF Knights

39 Marshall Herd

40 Houston Cougars

45 Cincinnati Bearcats

50 Utah Utes

51 Boise State Broncos

54 Navy Midshipmen

61 East Carolina Pirates

62 Louisiana-Lafayette Cajuns

66 Utah State Aggies

As you can see, we've got a nice little American Athletic Conference cluster at the top there, with everyone's darling teams showing as no surprise. But look a little bit lower - Navy and East Carolina are perhaps due more credit than I initially give them, with those Ragin' Cajuns nipping at their heels. Just missing this category were the Toledo Rockets (the highest ranked team from the MAC) and UTSA, of all teams. I guess I better not sleep on the Roadrunners this season.

Ten Worst Group of Five Programs

119 Army Knights

120 Hawaii Warriors

121 UAB Blazers

122 Eastern Michigan Eagles

123 Miami (OH) Redhawks

124 UTEP Miners

125 Massachusetts Minutemen

126 Florida International Panthers

127 New Mexico State Aggies

128 Georgia State Panthers

Not too many surprises here. Miami and EMU still have a long ways to go, grey turf or not, as does UMass and their new lockers. At least on the bright side for teams like Georgia State and New Mexico State, there's nowhere to go but up - though we've been saying that about the Aggies for a while now.