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Northern Illinois pulled off the stunner last weekend in South Bend, Indiana, knocking off then-No. 5 Notre Dame. Coach Thomas Hammock’s squad did precisely what needed to be done to do the impossible. I wonder if he followed my tutorial on the anatomy of an upset? Even though my tutorial focused on what makes for an FCS-over-FBS upset, the same rules apply here.
Those types of performances and outcomes can help Group of Five teams rise in the College Football Playoff Rankings, but they also strengthen the profile of the conference they represent. For example: look at how Sun Belt teams have performed this season. One of its best teams, Texas State, already made a statement against UTSA and rose in this week’s Group of Five Power Rankings as a result.
Oh, and the Bobcats host Arizona State on Thursday night. That will be an even bigger opportunity to state their case as one of the top non-major programs in college football.
That kind of success is why these Group of Five rankings remain important. Though these conferences get a significantly lower financial guarantee from the new 12-team CFP, they are on a more equitable field when it comes to the competition: The four highest ranked conference champions get byes, and the five highest ranked champs get auto-bids, but nothing is to say that the supposed “Power Four” are guaranteed those four byes or four of those five spots; if a Group of Five team were to outrank, hypothetically, the Big 12 champion, it would get a bye and home game. And with those spots comes financial windfalls based on success in the tournament.
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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/group-of-five-power-rankings-northern-illinois-vaults-into-top-three-after-historic-upset-of-notre-dame/
Author : Emory Hunt
Publish date : 2024-09-12 19:11:08
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