Coveted bowl still in reach
The University of Houston’s postseason picture began to come into focus over the weekend.
Win out, and the Cougars will play in a coveted New Year’s Six bowl.
A 56-37 blowout of South Florida, improving the Cougars to 7-1, was rewarded with No. 17 rankings in the Associated Press and Amway Coaches polls released Sunday.
That sets up an interesting November. With four regular-season games left, the Cougars are still in the hunt to host the American Athletic Conference Championship Game on Dec. 1.
UH holds a two-game lead over SMU and Tulane in the AAC West Division. Central Florida, unbeaten at 7-0 and ranked ninth in both polls, is the favorite in the East. The Knights and Temple, both 4-0
in league play, meet Thursday in Orlando, Fla.
The first College Football Playoff rankings are scheduled to be released Tuesday. With UCF not expected to be among the top four playoff teams, the likelihood becomes that the AAC winner — in a showdown that could match up an 11-1 Houston with an 11-0 UCF — will claim the New Year’s Six spot for the third time in the last five years.
The Group of Five conference champion ranked highest by the College Football Playoff committee earns the New Year’s Six nod, either in the Fiesta Bowl or Peach Bowl.
Jerry Palm, CBS Sports’ college football analyst, considers Houston “the second-best Group of Five team after undefeated UCF.” The Mountain West is the only league that could challenge (Fresno State and Utah State were among a record seven teams to enter the AP poll), but Palm said it would not be enough to unseat UCF or Houston.
“I don’t think any Mountain West team can top that,” Palm said.
In what was largely considered their toughest remaining regular-season game, the Cougars demolished USF and benefited from Cincinnati’s 26-20 overtime win over SMU. A win at SMU (3-5) on Saturday — along with a Tulane loss to USF — would allow the Cougars to clinch at least a share of the AAC West, a remarkable accomplishment for the first weekend in November.
The Cougars’ first chance to lock up the division could come as early as Nov. 10 at home against Temple (5-3). The final two games are against Tulane (3-5) and at Memphis (4-4) on the day after Thanksgiving.
Since losing to Texas Tech 63-49 in Week 3, the Cougars have won five in a row behind one of the nation’s most explosive offenses. UH is averaging 49.8 points and 571.4 yards, both second in the Football Bowl Subdivision behind topranked Alabama.
Junior quarterback D’Eriq King, who accounted for 551 yards and seven touchdowns against USF, made his season debut Sunday in the Sports Illustrated Heisman Trophy watch. While an outside shot, King has accounted for 39 touchdowns this season, seven shy of breaking the AAC single-season record set by UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton last season.
The AP and coaches poll rankings are the first for the Cougars since the final week of 2016, when they were No. 18 before a loss at Memphis. UH was listed on 57 of the 60 AP ballots. More than 50 percent of the ballots had the Cougars in the 16-18 range.
“The things we are chasing after … there’s no reward sent to our office (Sunday), and they are not going to stop playing college football the rest of the season,” UH coach Major Applewhite said after Saturday’s game about the prospect of being ranked. “It’s not over. We have a lot to go through. Being ranked is just a notoriety deal. Our players are not buying into that.”