AAC Commissioner decries uneven field
(9-1) at No. 25. Boise State (20) and Appalachian State (24) are the other teams from the Group of 5 conferences in this week’s poll.
Aresco objects to the committee ranking SMU, whose only loss was to Memphis, behind three-loss Oklahoma State (21), a pair of four-loss teams in Iowa State (22) and USC (23) and an Appalachian State out of the Sun Belt Conference.
“If we’re by far the strongest of the [Group of Five] conferences, and we clearly are, and we’ve been roughly equal or ahead of the ACC or Pac-12 in the composite six computer rankings and also metrics, if that’s the case, then why wouldn’t we get the benefit of the doubt?” Aresco asked. “[They] put two and three and fourloss [Power Five] teams ahead of our oneloss teams — and they’ve done it to some of our undefeated teams over the last few years — and they do it based on the strength of schedule.”
Aresco points to SMU’s win over TCU on Sept. 21 as a reason to rank the Mustangs higher.
Memphis and Cincinnati face each other on Nov. 30 before a possible meeting in the conference-championship game on Dec. 7. It’s feasible the AAC’s champion could be a two-loss team and that team could lose an Access Bowl bid to a one-loss champion from another Group of Five league.
“I think a two-loss team champion should absolutely be in the Cotton Bowl, period,” Aresco said. “There’s no question it should be a lock because the CFP standard is to identify and rank the best teams and there is no question in my mind that our champion, whoever it turns out to be, is going to be the best team in the [Group of Five].”
When asked about the possibility of a two-loss AAC champion not making a New Year’s Six bowl game, Aresco called that result a travesty.
Aresco would like the see the league get a guaranteed spot in the New Year’s Six rotation, similar to what the former Big East Conference received during the Bowl Championship Series.