Four teams from the Group of Five (although, to be fair, they all hail from the American Athletic Conference) are included in the College Football Playoffs Top 25 rankings, with one team falling far, one team moving up, one team staying put, and one team moving in.
The Navy Midshipmen (#20), Memphis Tigers (#21), Temple Owls (#22) and Houston Cougars (#24) help to round-out the bottom half of the CFP's rankings, with a 23rd ranked North Carolina and a 25th ranked Wisconsin interrupting the G5 party.
Navy is the lone newcomer of the four, who earned the respect from the Committee after opening a can of whoopass on the Tigers, winning 45-20 in Memphis. And, sure, while it's weird to see Navy in the rankings because they've been so "ehhhhh" for so long, their 7-1 record proves they aren't that big a leap to join, with the lone loss coming against Notre Dame.
Memphis, on the other hand, still hangs in the rankings (granted, from going from 13th to completely out would have been a bit of an overreaction by the Committee), coming in eight spots below last week at #21 and have a chance to earn back a little respect this week, with an opportunity to hand the #24 Cougars their first loss of the season.
Poor Temple, just staying put at #22. Granted, playing (and rightfully beating) SMU won't do too much, and with the success Willie T. has had in South Florida, Temple might be #22 next week with a win, too.
If there's anything to learn here, you have two big options.
#1 - LOL Louisville.
Louisville, who yes started slow, is gaining a ton of steam. The Cardinals have won three in a row and five of its last six (although, one of those wins was against Samford), and with Virginia, Pittsburgh and Kentucky in the last three weeks of the year, it isn't out of the question UofL can run the table to finish 2015 8-4.
Unlike the BCS, which was very much a "what have you done for me lately" rankings system, the Committee is working at a body of work, and see an 8-1 Temple or 7-1 Navy, both of which only lost to Notre Dame, or an 8-1 Memphis, who's only loss is to a team who's only loss..you know what, nevermind.
Long story short, this is awesome to see for fans of any of the Underdogs team. Louisville has it all - the recent history, the big-name coach, the conference, and yet they're still on the outside looking in. Keep it up, CFP committee.
#2 - Y no luv 4 Houston?
The four AAC teams in the CFP rankings have a combined 32-3 record. All four have at least seven wins, three have at least eight wins and three have one loss. The exception to the latter of the four? The Houston Cougars.
And yet, the Cougars are hanging in by a thread at #24. They have arguably the better "statement" wins among the four teams - three-point wins over the aforementioned Cardinals and just this past weekend against Cincinnati, not to mention a 34-0 win over the SEC's Vanderbilt - and yet...they're this close to not being in.
Outside of the statement wins, the Cougars have taken care of business - a 59-14 win against Texas State, a 49-28 win over Tulane, a 59-10 win over UCF, etc. The point is - they're not only beating teams that many think may be "above," them, but they're handling the teams that are obviously below them. Maybe we'll learn the Cougars' true colors against Memphis this weekend, and hopefully a UH win will mean more respect in the standings.
All 25 teams and where they stand based on the Selection Committee can be seen below.
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