Houston sits atop American; Memphis ranks fifth

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With the 2016 college football season underway, beat reporters from every American Athletic Conference team have come together to assemble weekly conference power rankings, a 1-12 list of the league’s best with the latest news and analysis from every team. Here’s how the group stacks up after Week 1.

1. Houston (1-0): With its 33-23 shocker over Oklahoma, the Cougars made arguably the loudest statement of the opening weekend that they are serious contenders to become the first Group of Five team to make the College Football Playoff. The win catapulted UH to No. 7 in the Amway Coaches Poll (No. 6 AP), the school’s highest ranking in 25 years. Quarterback Greg Ward Jr. is nursing a shoulder injury and likely won’t play much Saturday against Football Championship Subdivision school Lamar in what amounts to a tuneup for the Sept. 15 conference opener at Cincinnati. — Joseph Duarte, The Houston Chronicle

2. South Florida (1-0): Entering a season of high expectations, the Bulls picked up where they left off in 2015, opening with a 56-20 rout of Towson. Though USF was slow out of the gate with some early hiccups, including an erratic start by junior quarterback Quinton Flowers and a hit that knocked star tailback Marlon Mack out of the game with a shoulder injury in the second quarter, it eventually settled down to cruise in the second half. The first true test for the Bulls