College Football Preview Part XX- American Conference

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Welcome Back!

Today I continue my conference previews. These previews will attempt to predict how each conference finishes, but realize that doing so is extremely difficult, especially since no conference has a balanced schedule. Also, whatever the conferences come up with in the form of tiebreakers will make a huge difference, as all but the Sun Belt have done away with divisions. In addition, these predictions aren't my personal opinion; they are the result of the formula/model/statistical analysis/whatever. I will sometimes mention my thoughts in the narratives below the predictions.

The list of records for 3-years, 6-years, and 10 years are conference records only, and do not include any results for the conference championship games. You will notice that the teams haven't all played the same number of games, especially when considering they should have. This is because that teams played a varied number of games in 2020, and that sometimes games get cancelled (see Virginia in 2022, for example). In the case of teams switching conferences, I counted the record from their previous conference. Independent teams joining a conference were counted with their full record (UMass), but FCS teams moving up enter with 0-0 records.

In case you are interested, I get all of my information from various sources. I use the 3 main preview magazines (Phil Steele, Lindy's, and Athlon), but I also use many different websites, including (but not limited to): Google, Winsipedia, sports-reference.com, ESPN.com, TeamRankings.com, NCAA.com, and, of course, individual school websites.

I don't have a staff- it's just me- so all of the research is my own from these various sources (it doesn't help when they contradict each other...), so any mistakes are mine. I also don't have an editor/proofreader, so you are likely to find several (many? I hope not) typos, such as commas where periods should be (or vice versa), a misspelled or missing word, doubled words ("the the" in the middle of a sentence, for example), etc. 

Finally, feel free to leave a comment. Interacting is much of the fun! Of course, if you know me personally, feel free to just text. I'll get that a lot quicker.

So, on with the previews!


American Conference


3-Year History


Tulane 22-2/.917/1st

UTSA 19-5/.792/2nd

Memphis 15-9/.625/3rd

Army 20-12/.625/3rd

Navy 14-10/.583/5th

UNT 12-12/.500/6th

Rice 10-14/.417/7th

ECU 10-14/.417/7th

UAB 9-15/.375/9th

FAU 8-16/.333/10th

USF 8-16/.333/10th

Char 8-16/.333/10th

Tulsa 6-18/.250/13th

Temple 4-20/.167/14th


6-Year History


UTSA 34-13/.723/1st

Mem 30-18/.625/2nd

Army 43-27/.614/3rd

Tulane 29-19/.604/4th

Navy 27-20/.574/5th

UAB 24-20/.545/6th

UNT 23-24/.489/7th

FAU 22-24/.478/8th

Tulsa 19-27/.413/9th

Char 18-26/.409/10th

Rice 18-27/.400/11th

ECU 19-29/.396/12th

Temple 11-36/.234/13th

USF 11-36/.234/13th


10-Year History


Mem 52-28/.650/1st

UAB 37-23/.617/2nd

Army 74-47/.612/3rd

UTSA 47-32/.595/4th

Navy 47-32/.595/4th

UNT 39-40/.494/6th

Tulane 39-41/.488/7th

FAU 38-40/.487/8th

Temple 36-43/.456/9th

USF 33-46/.418/10th

Tulsa 31-47/.397/11th

Char 26-50/.342/12th

ECU 26-54/.325/13th

Rice 25-52/.3246/14th


Predicted Finish:


  1. Tulane

  2. Army

  3. Memphis

  4. UTSA

  5. Navy

  6. USF

  7. ECU

  8. North Texas

  9. UAB

  10. FAU

  11. Rice

  12. Charlotte

  13. Temple

  14. Tulsa


Conference Champion: Tulane


Chances to make the playoff: The American Conference (TAC) is basically in a competition with the Mountain West Conference, and whichever champion is better is the likely CFP participant. Tulane has games against Duke and at Ole Miss, Army plays at Kansas State, Memphis hosts Arkansas, UTSA plays at Texas A&M, and Navy has their annual game against Notre Dame, this time in South Bend. Whoever ends up winning the conference would be bolstered by an upset of a P4 team, and any other upsets the conference as a whole can pull would help their cause.

Don’t be surprised if… if Memphis or Navy take the 2nd spot in the AC CG. Both teams have favorable schedules, and the last spot could be won when they play each other in Memphis on Thanksgiving.

I’m not convinced… Army will be able to repeat their success from last year. I expect the Black Knights to stumble 2 or 3 times in the AC this year.


Make sure you come back Monday as I continue my previews!


Until next time, may you and your loved ones be blessed!   

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