We’ve hit the end of 2018. Bowl games are over, the early signings have been done, coaches have changed, and everyone’s focused on recruiting and getting ready for 2019. So that leaves us with the final rankings for this season, just like the final AP Poll to summarize what teams were the best this year. You can read the pre-bowl game rankings, which had brief previews of bowl games for each of the teams ranked at the time, here To stick with the theme of having something not related to the rankings about the group of 5 conferences at the bottom, we’ll list each conferences bowl record and the individual games that got them there. We won’t have another ranking until a preseason ranking for 2019 in August. Here are my top 15 teams from the group of 5 conferences for the 2018 season.

#1. UCF (Last week: 1)

A loss to LSU, their first in over 2 years, can’t even come close to unseating the Knights from the top spot among small conference teams. The game against the Tigers saw UCF dominated by an SEC team with superior athletes, but through being able to hold LSU to field goals four times on drives when LSU got the ball inside the 10 yard line and a 93-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter the final score was 40-32 in favor of LSU despite gaining 555 yards of total offense to the Knights’ 250. The Knights have seen wild ups and downs in their 23 years playing FBS football, as from 2013-2017 they went from 12-1 and a Fiesta Bowl victory in the first year of the American Conference’s existence to 0-12 in 2015 back up to 13-0 in 2017 and claiming a National Championship despite not being invited to the College Football Playoff. They may have done the same this year, but I’d imagine the bowl loss will stem the enthusiasm coming out of Orlando. If UCF can see more consistency moving forward than their first very successful coach George O’Leary, who’s time as coach was bookended by winless seasons with great success leading the team from the MAC to the CUSA and being one of the founding schools of the AAC, getting the Knights ranked for their first two of now four postseason AP Polls. Should Josh Heupel stay long term or his successors manage to maintain the success of the past two years they may compete with Boise State for best small conference football program, or even join the SEC, ACC, or another major conference.

#2. Fresno State (2)

Fresno State earned their first 12-win season in school history after beating Arizona State, 31-20 in the Las Vegas Bowl. After a tightly contested first half, including a great runback on a 70-yard pick-6 by Anthoula Kelly, that led to a 17-17 tie at the break, Fresno State turned the ball over on each of their first three drives of the second half, including a fumble while diving for the pilon by Dejonte O’Neal resulting in a touchback, but fortunately for the Bulldogs their defense held up and Arizona State only managed a field goal off of those three drives, along with two punts. Ronnie Rivers, who ran for 212 yards in the game, had a 68-yard touchdown run to give Fresno the lead with a minute left in the third quarter, and after another Rivers touchdown made it a 2 score game, Juju Hughes had an interception as the Sun Devils were looking to get in the red zone, and Fresno State ran out the clock. Head coach Jeff Tedford, who was the winningest coach at Cal before being fired in 2012, now has the highest single season win total at Fresno State. It feels safe to say Tedford won’t get the most wins by a coach at Fresno State, but the highest winning percentage (.750, James Bradshaw, 1936-42) wouldn’t be out of the question after posting a .786 winning percentage through his first two years with the Bulldogs.

#3. Boise State (3)

Boise State had what is believed to be the first bowl game ever cancelled by weather as thunderstorms prevented them from playing Boston College in the First Responder Bowl. The cancellation meant that the Broncos wouldn’t get a chance for an 11th win on the season, a fourth bowl win in 5 years under Bryan Harsin, and what could have been a 13th bowl win in school history. As it is, the Broncos were ranked at some point for the 17th consecutive season, along with finishing the year #23 in the AP Poll, something very few teams have done, although they haven’t been ranked in the postseason polls that consistently and therefore there are teams that you can say have been better than them more consistently. It is worth noting that the Broncos have won at least 8 games for 20 seasons in a row, most in the NCAA, and 21 seasons in a row with a winning record, a streak that spans 4 head coaches, and after Cincinnati beat Virginia Tech to put the Hokies to 6-7, those 21 years in a row is the longest in the nation as well. Boise State continues to be a model of consistency and success for small conference programs, and college football programs as a whole, despite only being in the FBS for now 23 years.

#4. Cincinnati (4)

Cincinnati played in one of the best bowl games of the year in their victory over Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl, with Michael Warren II’s 8 yard touchdown run with 1:29 remaining putting the Bearcats up for good in their 35-31 victory. The run capped off a 166 yard, 2 touchdown performance for Warren in a game so balanced that both teams ran and threw for over 200 yards, and the bowl saw 7 lead changes, 6 of which occurred in the second half. A key stat that led to Cincy’s win was recovering all 4 fumbles in the game, including a Warren fumble on the goal line in the second quarter recovered in the end zone by Khalil Lewis. The win gave them 11 on the year for the third time in school history, with the other two coming in 2008 and ’09 when they were rolling through a dying Big East Conference under Bryan Kelly. Another year or two of success and Luke Fickell may be the next in a growing list of coaches to go from Cincinnati to a more historically impressive school, including Mark Dantonio now at Michigan State, Brian Kelly now at Notre Dame, and Butch Jones, who had brief success at Tennessee before being fired late in the year in 2017. For now, the Bearcats celebrate their first year being ranked in a postseason AP Poll since 2011 and their first time being ranked at all since 2012 and look forward to at least next year continuing to have Fickell as their coach and expected growth from freshman QB Desmond Ridder, who will continue to have Michael Warren and his 19 rushing touchdowns in 2018 with him in the backfield.

#5. Appalachian State (5)

The Mountaineers’ 45-13 win over Middle Tennessee gave them 11 wins on the year, tying their highest total in school history at the FBS level and tying the most wins since 2007, when they won the FCS championship. After App State head coach Scott Satterfield left for Louisville, people thought Middle Tennessee may have a chance to win this game, but instead the Mountaineers, under interim head coach Mark Ivey, who had handled the defensive line this year, dominated the Blue Raiders. Ivey is now headed to Louisville with Satterfield along with several other members of their staff. App State got over 200 yards through the air and on the ground, and while MTSU got 330 yards from Brent Stockstill, quarterbacking his last game with his dad as his coach, he threw one touchdown and 2 interceptions. The Mountaineers threw 2 interceptions, both to Reed Blankenship, but 12 tackles for a loss and 6 sacks on the game against just 3 plays where Middle Tennessee brought them down in the backfield without a sack, along with 2 interceptions of their own highlighted how much better their defense was than MTSU’s, which propelled them to the win. Eliah Drinkwitz, the 35-year-old who was North Carolina State’s Offensive Coordinator, has been hired to coach App State from 2019 through 2023, and we’ll see how much he can continue the success of a program that hasn’t seen much failure since the 80’s, as they have just 2 losing seasons since 1984, one of which was their first year in the 2-year transition to the FBS.

#6. Utah State (6)

Utah State dominated North Texas to get to 11 wins for the first time since 2012, after which Gary Andersen left for Wisconsin. This time, they lost head coach Matt Wells to Texas Tech and Andersen will return after flaming out at Oregon State and serving as an assistant head coach at Utah last season. They’ll return QB Jordan Love, who threw for 359 yards and 4 touchdowns in the New Mexico Bowl and over 3500 yards and 32 TD’s on the season, as well as running back Gerold Bright, who ran for 103 against the Mean Green to push his season total to 888 from a record-breaking offense for Andersen to hit the ground running with. The defense forced 4 interceptions by UNT after their star quarterback Mason Fine left the game with an injury and the Mean Green would end up having 4 different players attempt a pass in the game. The Aggies are ranked in the postseason poll for the third time in school history at #22 this year, along with that 2012 season when they were 11-2, and back in 1961 when they went 9-1-1 in the Skyline Conference, which featured Utah and BYU, but also included Montana, now in the FCS. The dominant victory helped them get in, but the Mountain West having three teams ranked in the postseason poll leaves them ahead of the PAC 12 and ACC, an incredible feat for a small conference team to have about as much top-end talent as 2 power conferences.

#7. Army (7)

The Knights from West Point tied the record for largest margin of victory in an FBS Bowl Game with their 70-14 drubbing of the injury-riddled Houston Cougars who fired their defensive coordinator after their disappointing end to the regular season. Houston also just lost their offensive coordinator and o-line coach, as they both head to Florida State, while Army’s option attack led to QB Kelvin Hopkins JR rushing for 5 touchdowns in the first 33 minutes of the game. It seems fitting for Army to win the Armed Forces Bowl, and the win gives them their first 11-win season in school history, which has them ranked for the first time since 1996, and being #19 is the highest since 1958, when the Knights went 8-0-1 to finish #3 in the AP Poll. Army ran for over 500 yards, as 5 different players topped 50 yards rushing, all of which averaged over 6 yards per carry as the Knights averaged 8.7 per rush as a team. Hopkins’ impressive performance put him over 1000 yards rushing and passing on the year, as his 70 passing yards brought his season total to 1026, making him the first Army QB to throw for 1000 yards since 2007, when Carson Williams had 1770 yards through the air. This year was just the third time in school history that Army won 10 games, with the others being 1996 and 2017, which puts head coach Jeff Monken in consideration for best Army coach since Red Blaik, who won back-to-back national championships at West Point in 1944 and ’45 as Army had extra students and football players because of World War II.

#8. UAB (8)

Another team coming off a dominant bowl win, the Blazers took down Northern Illinois, 37-13, in the Boca Raton Bowl. From the first play of scrimmage, a 70-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Johnston III to Xavier Ubosi, UAB was in control. Ubosi would have two more touchdown receptions in the game, both over 40 yards, as he finished with 7 catches for 227 yards, third-most in school history for any game, a bowl record for UAB. The future is uncertain for UAB, who will lose 35 seniors, including 15 starting players like Ubosi and 4 offensive lineman. For now, they celebrate their dream season of winning a conference championship and a bowl game among 11 total victories just two years removed from not having a football team. Someday a movie will be made about this team, no matter what the future holds for UAB football, whether they use this restart to continue reaching new heights that seemed unachievable prior to the shutdown, which is why the university elected to discontinue football in the first place, or if they return to the doldrums of the Conference-USA and struggle to make it to 6 wins and bowl eligibility in any given year.

#9. Marshall (12)

The Thundering Herd rolled over South Florida in the Gasparilla bowl by a final of 38-20 behind Isiah Green throwing for 221 yards and rushing for a touchdown, 2 touchdowns on the ground from Keion Davis, and a defense that stifled the Bulls’ attack, including stripping USF of the ball and returning it to the one yard line to set up an easy score in the first quarter. The win gave Marshall 9 wins on the year for the first time since 2015 and the fourth time since joining the Conference-USA in 2005. For contrast, in their 8 seasons in the MAC before switching conferences, they won at least 9 games 5 times. The bowl victory puts Marshall’s all-time bowl record at an incredible 12-2, helped out by head coach Doc Holliday being 6-0 all with the Thundering Herd. With a freshman at quarterback in Green, as well as one half of their running back tandem being a freshman this year in Brenden Knox, Marshall could expect improvement at those spots next year, although losing a 1000-yard receiver in Tyre Brady is going to hurt. Defensively, they’re losing two good linebackers in Frankie Hernandez and Chase Hancock, but they will keep a lot of talent on their defensive line to get after opposing quarterbacks in 2019.

#10. Troy (13)

Troy handled Buffalo’s offense by scoring right with them in a 42-32 win in the Dollar General Bowl, led by sophomore QB Sawyer Smith throwing for 320 yards and 4 touchdowns in the game. Smith had played reasonably well after taking over when Junior Kaleb Barker went down mid-season, but saved his best game for the bowl win, giving Troy double-digit wins for the third straight season. After Dana Holgorsen confusingly left West Virginia for Houston, they hired Troy’s head coach Neal Brown to replace him, which makes it worth noting that before Brown got there the Trojans had just one 9-win season in their schools history at the FBS level in 2009, under longtime coach Larry Blakeney, who coached the school from 1991 until 2014, seeing the program through transitions from division II to I-AA, then up to division I FBS in 2001. Blakeney built a pretty successful program at Troy, including a 5 year stretch from 2006-’10 where the Trojans won at least a share of a conference title every year. The new head coach will have the responsibility of attempting to keep Troy near the top of the Sun Belt every year and keep getting them to bowl games, as they’ve been to 8 in the past 15 years, more than any Sun Belt team other than Arkansas State.

#11. Ohio (On the Bubble)

Ohio dominated San Diego State to the point that the Bobcats didn’t punt the ball in their 27-0 shutout victory in the Frisco Bowl. A major reason for them not punting was the ball control they employed by simply giving the ball to AJ Ouellette 29 times and letting him rack up 164 yards on the ground. He will be missed badly by Ohio next year as they will likely turn the offense over to junior Nathan Rourke, who has amassed over 4500 passing yards and 40 passing touchdowns over the past two years, as well as rushing for over 850 yards both of the past two seasons and having 36 rush touchdowns in his career thus far. The bowl win put them at 9 victories on the year for the 6th time under head coach Frank Solich, after having done so just once in school history before he arrived, going 10-1 and being ranked in the final AP Poll the only time in school history back in 1968 under Bill Hess. Between Hess and Solich (1978-2004), the Bobcats didn’t go to a single bowl game, finished no higher than 4th in the conference before it split in divisions and no higher than third in the division after the split, and had just 5 winning seasons (3 at 6-5) compared to 7 years in which they won 1 or 0 games. They’re currently on a stretch of 9 bowl appearances in 10 years, but for a long time they were stuck in the basement of MAC football.

#12. Buffalo (9)

Buffalo had arguably their best season in school history end on a sour note as they lost the MAC Championship Game and then the Dollar General Bowl, 42-32 to Troy. Their 4 turnovers proved to be too much to overcome in the game, especially with the final one coming with 3:12 remaining in the fourth quarter with the Bulls trailing by 3, on the first play of the drive quarterback Tyree Jackson was strip sacked by Antoine Barker of Troy, Troy would recover and score a touchdown on their very next play, making it a two score game with just 3 minutes to play. The fact that this would probably be considered the best year in school history regardless of level is interesting for a team that was playing division III football as recently as 1992, but the Bulls have never had much consistent success at any point in the school’s history. They have had just one streak of two winning seasons in a row (1983-84, in D3), since the university shut down the football program between 1971 and ’76. They’ve been to just 3 bowl games in team history as they’ve had exactly one every 5 years starting in 2008, and lost all of them. It’s still possible that they could have another good season in 2019 to have back-to-back winning seasons again, but Jackson was reportedly exploring transferring and has now decided to declare for the NFL draft. They did have a freshman running back duo of Jaret Patterson and Kevin Marks who combined for over 1800 yards on the ground this year, but losing a talented quarterback like Jackson really tends to hurt small conference teams that don’t have as much depth as bigger schools.

#13. Georgia Southern (OTB)

Georgia Southern knocked off Eastern Michigan in a thrilling Camellia Bowl, 23-21 as junior kicker Tyler Bass hit a 40-yard field goal as time expired to crush EMU’s hopes of winning their first bowl game since 1987. The Eagles completed a major turnaround this season, going from 2-10 to 10-3 using their option attack that led them to have the second-fewest pass attempts of any FBS team, with only Army throwing fewer, and they crushed the record for fewest turnovers in a season by an FBS team, turning the ball over just 5 times, being the only team to not throw an interception in the FBS this year, with the previous record for fewest turnovers in a season being 8, done by 6 teams, most recently LSU in 2017. Sophomore QB Shai Werts will look to build on his 2018 campaign where he threw and ran for over 900 yards running their option attack, throwing for 10 touchdowns and running for 15 more, but he’ll do so without 1000-yard rusher Wesley Fields with him in the backfield. The Eagles have had a lot of success since transitioning up to the FBS in 2013-14, after winning 6 FCS championships since restarting their football program in 1982 after they hadn’t fielded a team since the end of World War II, including winning 4 titles in 6 years from 1985-90, going to the playoffs 19 times in 31 years of eligibility in the FCS. They’ll look to keep fighting their way up in a crowded Sun Belt East that also features Appalachian State and Troy.

#14. Florida International (OTB)

The Golden Panthers beat Toledo in a hard-fought Bahamas Bowl by a final score of 35-32, giving them 9 wins in a season for the first time in school history, and is their second ever bowl victory. They all but sealed the victory with a 4th quarter drive that took 13 plays and over six minutes, which included a key 4th down conversion at Toledo’s 33 yard line, capped off by an 18 yard touchdown run that was the third of the day for Anthony Jones with just 41 seconds to play to put them up by 10 points. Toledo scored a desperation touchdown but couldn’t convert an onside kick with less than 5 seconds to play and FIU was able to take a knee and win the game. The Golden Panthers have seen their share of struggles for a program that’s only been playing for 17 seasons, including two separate losing season streaks of at least 5 years, but former Miami head coach Butch Davis is having success through his first two years less than 10 miles from his old school, tying the school record with 8 wins last season before breaking that record this year with 9, and FIU and Davis will try to build on this success and compete for the CUSA championship in 2019, as they have yet to win an outright conference title in school history, sharing the Sun Belt championship with Troy in 2010 being the closest they’ve come.

#15. Temple (10)

Temple lead Duke 27-14 with a little over 4 minutes left in the first half of the Independence Bowl before surrendering 42 unanswered points to end up losing, 56-27. After head coach Geoff Collins was announced as the next head coach at Georgia Tech, the Owls went looking for their next head coach, and had believed they found their guy in Miami defensive coordinator Manny Diaz. He had been officially hired by Temple before Miami head coach Mark Richt suddenly retired and Diaz went back to Miami to take their head coaching job. It’s not clear if this counts as a 5th consecutive head coach to be hired away by a power 5 school, but even four in a row is an impressive streak that shows the strength of the program, which is a good sign that whoever they hire as their new head coach will be able to find success at a program that has been rolling despite the head coach inconsistency after winning more than 6 games just once between 1979, the only time Temple has ever been ranked in a postseason AP Poll, and 2009, under Al Golden, the first of the current string of head coaches to have enough success with the Owls that a power 5 school wants to hire them away. The challenge for their new head coach will be overcoming UCF in the AAC East to get back to the title game after playing in back-to-back title games and winning the conference in 2016 after falling to Houston in the 2015 championship game.

 

Dropped Out:

Memphis (11), Houston (14), North Texas (15)

 

Group of 5 Conference Bowl Games

American Athletic Conference

 Overall record: 2-5, second worst among all conferences

Wins: Tulane, 41-24 over Louisiana, Cure Bowl

Cincinnati, 35-31 over Virginia Tech, Military Bowl

Losses: South Florida, 20-38 to Marshall, Gasparilla Bowl

Memphis, 34-37 to Wake Forest, Birmingham Bowl

Houston, 14-70 to Army, Armed Forces Bowl

Temple, 27-56 to Duke, Independence Bowl

UCF, 32-40 to LSU, Fiesta Bowl

Conference USA

Overall record: 4-2, best among all conferences

Wins: UAB, 37-13 over Northern Illinois, Boca Raton Bowl

Marshall, 38-20 over South Florida, Gasparilla Bowl

Florida International, 35-32 over Toledo, Bahamas Bowl

Louisiana Tech, 31-14 over Hawaii, Hawaii Bowl

Losses: Middle Tennessee State, 13-45 to Appalachian State, New Orleans Bowl

North Texas, 13-52 to Utah State, New Mexico Bowl

Mid-American Conference

Overall record: 1-5, worst among all conferences

Wins: Ohio, 27-0 over San Diego State, Frisco Bowl

Losses: Eastern Michigan, 21-23 to Georgia Southern, Camellia Bowl

Northern Illinois, 13-37 to UAB, Boca Raton Bowl

Toledo, 32-35 to Florida International, Bahamas Bowl

Western Michigan, 18-49 to BYU, Potato Bowl

Buffalo, 42-32 to Troy, Dollar General Bowl

Mountain West Conference

Overall record: 3-2, tied for second best among all conferences

Wins: Fresno State, 31-20 over Arizona State, Las Vegas Bowl

Utah State, 52-13 over North Texas, New Mexico Bowl

Nevada: 16-13 (OT) over Arkansas State, Arizona Bowl

Losses: San Diego State, 0-27 to Ohio, Frisco Bowl

Hawaii, 14-31 to Louisiana Tech, Hawaii Bowl

Note: Boise State had their bowl game against Boston College cancelled due to weather

Sun Belt Conference

Overall record: 3-2, tied for second best among all conferences

Wins: Appalachian State, 45-13 over Middle Tennessee State, New Orleans Bowl

Georgia Southern, 23-21 over Eastern Michigan, Camellia Bowl

Troy, 42-32 over Buffalo, Dollar General Bowl

Losses: Louisiana, 24-41 to Tulane, Cure Bowl

Arkansas State, 13-16 (OT) to Nevada, Arizona Bowl

 

So, with the 2018 season having come to an end, we look ahead to the 2019 season still nearly 8 months away and wait for college football to start up again this August, and once we’ve reached that point we’ll be back with more rankings with who we think will be the best small conference teams in 2019. We’ll see if UCF can keep their crown, or if another team can overtake them as the best team from the group of 5, whether it be a traditionally good group of 5 team such as Boise State or Cincinnati, a team that’s gotten hot in recent years like Fresno State, an upstart like Appalachian State, or a team that isn’t even on this list this year. However 2019 turns out, I’m excited to see it and break down the best of the group of 5 teams.

Until next time,

CM

Stats and info courtesy of ESPN and college-football-reference.