We saw a notable gap emerge between the top and bottom halves of The American this year, with only Temple (who was snubbed for a bowl game) caught somewhere in the middle. The league earned the dubious honor of placing three teams in ESPN’s final “Bottom Ten” rankings of the year, but three of the league’s top teams will have shots at ten-win seasons during bowl games.
As far as bowl games go, I like what the league did with its bowl assignments, but I think a little common sense would have made the matchups even better. Why not flip UCF and ECU’s assignments? That would have produced UCF vs. Florida (in Birmingham) and ECU vs. NC State (in St. Pete). No need to advertise either of those game to sell tickets. You totally dropped the ball on this one, Mike Aresco.
On to the last power rankings of the regular season: