It seems the stature placed on conference championships has been overshadowed a bit by the expanded College Football Playoff field and the weight given to whether a team makes the 12-team bracket or not as the defining verdict on its season.
Even winning a conference title becomes secondary to whatever happens next in the CFP, and increasingly it’s a disadvantage in some cases for playoff hopefuls to have to play an extra game this week and be vulnerable to ramifications of taking another loss while other teams sit home with their records intact. (See: Alabama and BYU)
But it’s still great theater for college football fans, with several teams playing as much for their CFP fate as for that conference title.
The action starts Friday night and continues into Saturday with the CFP selection committee setting the final 12-team bracket on Sunday.
Here’s a look at each Group of Five conference championship game Friday (in order of kickoff time) and what’s at stake.
(All game times ET; all point spreads via ESPN Bet)
Sun Belt Championship: Troy (8-4) at No. 25 James Madison (11-1)
7 p.m. Friday on ESPN
James Madison is losing head coach Bob Chesney to UCLA, but not until its season is over as he’ll coach the team Friday night and through a potential CFP appearance.
That prize is still on the table for the Dukes with a little help.
With automatic CFP berths going to the five highest-ranked conference champions, there was always going to be a spot for the top Group of Five champion to make the field. But this year, there could be room for two G5 teams thanks to the chaos that unfolded in the ACC.
Due to a strength-of-schedule (opponents’ win percentage in conference play) tiebreaker, 7-5 Duke beat out 10-2 Miami, 9-3 Georgia Tech, 8-4 SMU and 8-4 Pittsburgh in a five-way tie for second in 6-2 in ACC play. If the Blue Devils beat No. 17 Virginia on Saturday night, the ACC could get shutout of the playoffs entirely.
James Madison is already ranked and with a win would surely get in over Duke, but if Virginia wins JMU would likely miss out as No. 20 Tulane and No. 24 North Texas play in the AAC championship game and the winner would likely remain the higher-ranked G5 team.
(If JMU loses to Troy and the Blue Devils win, that’s a harder one to sort out.)
But JMU is a 23.5-point favorite for a reason. The Dukes (not to be confused with the Duke Blue Devils) took their only loss to Louisville while all but two of their wins came by double-digits. The only close victories were over Georgia State (14-7) and Washington State (24-20).
JMU is led by veteran dual-threat QB Alonza Barnett III, who has passed for 2,440 yards, 20 touchdowns and 7 interceptions and rushed for 459 yards and 13 scores, running back Wayne Knight (1,051 rushing yards, 8 TDs, 6.2 yards per carry) and a defense that ranks fifth nationally in giving up just 253.5 yards per game and 10th in points allowed (16.0 per game).
Troy went 6-2 in the conference play to lead the Sun Belt’s West division, taking losses to Arkansas State (23-10) and Old Dominion (33-0) while securing key wins over top division contenders Southern Miss (28-18) and Louisiana (35-23). Troy’s other losses came to Clemson and Memphis.
The Trojans dealt with injuries at the quarterback position throughout the season. Junior Goose Crowder started the first three games before sustaining a broken collarbone in that loss to Memphis. Junior Tucker Kilcrease took over until he was injured Nov. 13 in the loss to Old Dominion, with Crowder (1,118 passing yards, 11 TDs, 5 INTs) taking back over down the stretch.
Prediction: James Madison 44, Troy 21
Conference USA Championship: Kennesaw State (9-3) at Jacksonville State (8-4)
7 p.m. Friday on CBSSN
No CFP stakes here as the conference championship is the prize for these two teams.
Kennesaw State lost to Wake Forest and Indiana to open the season and then reeled off nine wins in 10 games, but that lone loss came against Jacksonville State — 35-26 on the road on Nov. 15.
Jacksonville State, meanwhile, lost nonconference games to UCF, Georgia Southern and Southern Miss and then took its lone league loss to FIU (27-21) two weeks ago.
When these teams met last month, Kennesaw State QB Amari Odom had his worst game of the season with 3 INTs while Jacksonville State QB Caden Creel passed for 137 yards and rushed for 127 and 2 TDs.
Odom was pretty good most of the season, though, passing for 2,139 yards, 17 TDs and 6 INTs and rushing for 379 yards and 7 TDs.
Kennesaw State is a 2.5-point favorite.
Prediction: Kennesaw State 45, Jacksonville State 35
AAC Championship: No. 24 North Texas (11-1) at No. Tulane (10-2)
8 p.m. Friday on ABC
This is arguably one of the three best games of the weekend with the winner set to make the CFP unless the committee finds some reason to elevate James Madison ahead.
Both teams are losing their head coaches with North Texas’ Eric Morris hired at Oklahoma State and Tulane’s Jon Sumrall hired at Florida, but both are remaining through the end of their respective seasons.
North Texas is in the midst of the best season in program history and leads all FBS teams in scoring (46.8 PPG) and total offense (511.8 YPG).
QB Drew Mestemaker is one of the great stories in college football, as he didn’t play QB for his high school team and walked-on last year at North Texas. He enters Friday night as the most prolific passer in the country with an FBS-leading 3,835 yards, 29 TDs and 4 INTs (plus 5 rushing TDs).
Meanwhile, sophomore Wyatt Young is among the leading receivers nationally with 62 catches for 1,203 yards and 10 TDs, and freshman Caleb Hawkins one of the top rushers statistically at 1,216 yards with an FBS-best 23 rushing TDs/26 overall TDs.
North Texas’ only loss came to South Florida, 63-36, before winning its final six games by an average margin of 29 points.
Tulane, meanwhile, played three P4 opponents in September, beating Northwestern and Duke and losing to Ole Miss. The Green Wave later took a surprising 48-26 loss at UTSA in late October, but it rallied from there with a pivotal win over Memphis to start a 4-0 November.
BYU transfer QB Jake Retzlaff leads Tulane offensively, passing for 2,717 yards, 14 TDs and 6 INTs and rushing for 561 yards and 14 scores.
North Texas is a 2.5-point favorite.
Prediction: Tulane 34, North Texas 28
Mountain West Championship: UNLV (10-2) at Boise State (8-4)
8 p.m. Friday on FOX
Dan Mullen has been mentioned in the conversation surrounding several job openings this cycle after his strong first season at UNLV, after taking three years off following his firing at Florida.
The Rebels started 6-0 with a notable win over Big Ten foe UCLA, then lost back-to-back games to Boise State and New Mexico before closing with four straight wins to earn a rematch with the Broncos.
Boise State won that first meeting convincingly, 56-31 at home, and will be back on its blue turf for the rematch as well.
QB Maddux Madsen passed for 253 yards, 4 TDs and 1 INT in that win while Dylan Riley rushed for 201 yards and a score. Riley rushed for 1,016 yards overall this season with 11 total TDs while Madsen passed for 1,994 yards, 15 TDs, 7 INTs and rushed for 3 scores.
The Broncos took nonconference losses to South Florida and Notre Dame and then also lost back-to-back conference games to Fresno State and San Diego State the first half of November before closing with wins over Colorado State and Utah State.
Boise State won the last two Mountain West titles while UNLV is looking for its first ever Mountain West football championship.
Rebels QB Anthony Colandrea (3,050 passing yards, 22 TDs, 8 INTs, 555 rushing yards and 8 TDs) was the conference’s offensive player of the year.
Boise State is a 5.5-point favorite.
Prediction: UNLV 38, Boise State 35
