Ad Disclosure
Best Group of 5? Mountain West makes case on social media
By Paul Harvey
Published:
The era of conference realignment rolls on, this time with the AAC announcing the addition of 6 new programs on Thursday. That will bring the AAC up to a 14-team league for football and men’s and women’s basketball.
With the announcement, AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco continues to bang the drum for his conference as the best Group of 5 conference in the country. He continues to use the term “Power 6” to refer to the AAC, something he says is not going away.
According to Nicole Auerbach with The Athletic, Aresco indicated that the Power 6 campaign is “energized” by the addition of the new programs:
AAC commissioner Mike Aresco says that the “Power 6” campaign is not going away. It will be “energized” with the new membership.
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) October 21, 2021
Needless to say, the Mountain West disagrees with Aresco’s claim. The MWC produced a graphic on Twitter with the claim that it is the Mountain West that has been the best non-Power 5 conference more times than the AAC – or any other Group of 5 for that matter.
Why yes, @slmandel. We would like a word.
Even with the AAC’s current membership, we’re still the top Group of 5 conference this year.
The MW has been the top G5 league 9️⃣ of the last 1️⃣7️⃣ years.#AtThePeak https://t.co/nKePgE9fhM pic.twitter.com/xX7TotVo57
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) October 21, 2021
It will be interesting to see how the realignment shakes out and how it affects the ability of a Group of 5 team to make the College Football Playoff. For now, Cincinnati is the No. 2 team on the AP Poll, but it remains to be seen if the CFP Committee will feel the same way about the Bearcats.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.