Roundtable: What's the worst G5 conference? Will the AAC remain the best G5 conference?

Everyone knows that the American Athletic Conference holds the title as the best G5 conference. Any argument against this notion would be ridiculous as the conference is stacked with depth . But which G5 conference holds the unfortunate title of being the worst?

According to S&P+ averages, Conference USA was the worst FBS conference last season and they expect the conference to be in contention for that spot again as eight teams rank 100th or worse in S&P+ projections for the 2016 season.

But is CUSA really the worst G5 conference or will last season be a departure from the norm? We discussed our opinions to holds that title in slack.

The worst G5 conference is...

James Jiminez: If this is gonna be a gigantic dump on the MAC, I will be immensely sad.

Nick Simon: Its between the MAC and CUSA.

Nic: Nope. CUSA.

Jeremy Harper: Talent wise, Sun Belt is still the worst. But the upside is very promising.

Jared Kalmus: I'd go MAC.

Cyrus Smith: #Funbelt football has been on the uptick due to the additions of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. Honestly, its only natural that CUSA held this distinction last season due to choosing media markets instead of established football programs but my vote goes to the MAC.

So will any conference ever supplant the AAC as the best G5 conference?

James: I don't think there is a conference that can do that. The Mountain West is declining and has a bad TV deal, the MAC is average and content with its niche, and Sun Belt/CUSA are in the same region and have unattractive (in comparison) football products.

Hondros: The Mountain West and AAC will always be at the top and interchanging.

James: I just feel like the Mountain West took a major beating last year. I mean, a MW team lost to AKRON.

Cyrus: I agree with James. Essentially the MWC needs either UNLV or Nevada to be good, Boise to remain good and two of the three Cali schools to be formidable. Nevada has been down, UNLV is still trash, and only SDSU has stepped up to compete with Boise, whereas Fresno State and San Jose are still treading water.

Nic: Right, but the AAC is chock-full of teams that just recently became good.

Cyrus: True. But all of their teams have much higher ceilings. Houston, UCF, USF, hell even SMU are pretty much all interchangeable as far as potential goes.

Nic: Right, but you can make the same statement about several Mountain West teams as far as potential goes.

Hondros: They also could all be very bad too (see UCF). New Mexico can be good and Utah State and Colorado State have high ceilings. Hell even UNLV is on the up.

Cyrus: I never thought Lubick’s success at CSU was sustainable so I can’t agree there.

Nic: They have a new stadium and the Big 12 maybe, possibly, kind of wants them. What more could you possibly ask for?

Cyrus: The AAC will remain the best G5 conference with a large gap between them and the next best conference.

Hondros: We need more Mountain West vs AAC games.