Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, Middle Tennesse, and Tech are all looking pretty good to start off the season. Will a CUSA team continue to roll and end up in the final top 25 poll? Could we possibly have 2 or more teams make it?
(09-06-2016 07:52 PM)RonBurgundy Wrote: [ -> ]Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, Middle Tennesse, and Tech are all looking pretty good to start off the season. Will a CUSA team continue to roll and end up in the final top 25 poll? Could we possibly have 2 or more teams make it?
I predict the league champion will finish the season ranked provided they win their bowl game.
^ this...and depending on how division races and ooc.... Could be two
If there's a clear cut winner in both divisions I think we could even get two. None of Vandy, Mizzou or Bowling Green are pushovers, but our toughest games are probably in conference. I'm not saying all three of Marshall, Tech, and Western are better than all three of Vandy, Mizzou, and Bowling Green, but at least one of them is.
Even if all of us have a great season, biggest challenge to placing two teams in the final Top 25 Poll is that all four of us play at least three or four in conference regular season games against each other. For example, MT has to survive Western, Marshall, and La Tech, then assuming Southern Miss edges La Tech for the West we'd have to meet USM and beat them in the Championship Game. Not saying we can't do it. Or that one of the others can't do it. But, the more likely scenario is only the CUSA CHAMP ends up in the Top 25. And the runner up ends in the Top 35-40.
(09-06-2016 09:12 PM)MoodyBlueRaider Wrote: [ -> ]Even if all of us have a great season, biggest challenge to placing two teams in the final Top 25 Poll is that all four of us play at least three or four in conference regular season games against each other. For example, MT has to survive Western, Marshall, and La Tech, then assuming Southern Miss edges La Tech for the West we'd have to meet USM and beat them in the Championship Game. Not saying we can't do it. Or that one of the others can't do it. But, the more likely scenario is only the CUSA CHAMP ends up in the Top 25. And the runner up ends in the Top 35-40.
Right, which is why I said if there are two clear cut division winners. Two 8-0 or 7-1 teams that perform well out of conference could both get ranked.
Other than a 11 or 12 win season and the CUSA Champion getting in, it will take a concerted effort of all CUSA teams having a good OOC so that when we play each other we don't get dinged for even winning a game. The AAC did this last year with Houston, Navy, Memphis, and Temple all being strong OOC and others being good support for the conference schedule.
tl;dr
We need to bring the bottom of the conference, relatively, to give us overall strength.