Around the Group of Five: Week 8

Story posted October 27, 2022 in CommRadio, Sports by Adam Sheetz

The Group of Five is so competitive within the ranks, and a bunch of teams are still competing for the Group’s spot in the New Year’s Six.

The highest ranked team is still the Cincinnati Bearcats, as they went on the road and survived a tough test against SMU. Cincinnati led by as much as 17 points, but the Mustangs rallied back and were a two-point conversion away from forcing overtime against the Bearcats.

Cincinnati remains at the top, but it has been very inconsistent this year compared to year’s past. The Bearcats were a College Football Playoff team in 2021, the first in Group of Five history. But this year has been a different monster after losing a lot of talent to the NFL Draft.

Luke Fickell has found ways to win this year in these close games, but they will need to continue to find ways to win if they want to remain as the premier team in the Big Ten.

The surprise team of 2022 has been Tulane, who remains firmly in the AP Top-25 through eight games. The Green Wave sit at 7-1 on the year and are firmly in contention for the spot in the New Year’s Six.

The Green Wave are coming off an impressive 38-28 win over Memphis on Saturday. Tulane led by as much as 35 in the first half, and forced four turnovers in the win.

Tulane sits at No. 23 in the latest AP Poll, and has positioned itself perfectly in the American race entering the bye week.

The Sun Belt once seemed like a firm contender for one of these New Year’s Six bid, but the conference has since been beating themselves up with the conference remaining very close into the end of October.

The Sun Belt’s East division is very competitive, and Old Dominion entered the week undefeated in conference play. That ended this week when the Monarchs fell at home to Georgia Southern by a final score of 28-23.

With Hudson in attendance and homecoming being celebrated, the Eagles came in and stole the win. The Eagles were led by Jalen White, who totalled 138 rushing yards and a touchdown in the win.

Georgia Southern returns home this week to host South Alabama, while the Monarchs hit the road to take on Georgia State.

Troy is attempting to run away with the Sun Belt in the West and they are off to a great start. Troy sits at 6-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play after a 10-6 win on the road at South Alabama.

The Trojans’ defense showed up big in the win, holding the Jaguars to only 31 rushing yards on 21 attempts. The Trojans enter their bye week, before traveling to Louisiana to take on the Ragin’ Cajuns on Nov. 5.

The Group of Five is getting run by the American, but the competitiveness of all the conferences make the group a must-see for the remainder of 2022.

 

Adam Sheetz is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email ads360@psu.edu.

About the Contributors

Adam Sheetz's photo

Adam Sheetz

Junior / Broadcast Journalism

Adam Sheetz is a third year student from Reedsville, Pennsylvania majoring in broadcast journalism. He has been a broadcaster for WCHX 105.5 FM in Mifflin County covering high school sports. He has also been a member of CommRadio since his first semester at Penn State, being involved in both the Arts and Sports departments. Adam has extensive experience in a play-by-play setting within CommRadio, covering football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball for the station. He has done written content for CommRadio ranging from Penn State football articles all the way to discussing Disney Channel movies. To contact Adam, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).