American Conference Sees Shakeup at Top as Tulane Awaits League Play

The Tulane Green Wave don’t exactly have the best perception in conference play as their peers had the chance to get ahead of them on their bye week in the Week 5 slate.

The American Conference standings did see a bit of a shakeup after the USF Bulls (4-1, 1-1) initially led the way into the weekend.

With a loss to the Temple Owls (2-3, 1-1), the Bulls fell down a bit.

The new leaders in a three-way tie are the FAU Owls, Memphis Tigers, and UTSA Roadrunners who all sit at 4-1 on the year and 1-0 in conference play.

Technically, tiebreakers will all come into play down the line, but the UAB Blazers (3-2) and North Texas Mean Green (3-2) also sit at the top at 1-0 in their American slate.

USF, the Army Black Knights (2-2), and Temple Owls are all 1-1 in conference play.

The Tulsa Golden Hurricanes (3-2) are 0-1 in the American, and the other teams with losing conference records are the Navy Midshipmen (1-3, 0-2), Rice Owls (1-4, 0-1), and Charlotte 49ers (0-5, 0-1).

The Green Wave sit firmly towards the end due to the fact that they haven’t played anyone in the American yet. Neither have the East Carolina Pirates, who also boast a 2-2 record heading into Week 6.

The Mean Green kicked off the weekend with a 45-44 overtime win over the Golden Hurricanes on Thursday night.

The Tigers easily defeated the 49ers 59-8, the Roadrunners beat the Rice Owls 16-14, and the Temple Owls toppled the Bulls 17-13 on Saturday’s slate.

The Blazers beat Samford, the Midshipmen lost to Air Force, FAU dominated Texas Southern, and the Black Knights lost to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in non-conference matchups.

So, a lot of shakeup happened across the American, but Tulane sat on the outside looking in as an observer on their bye week as some teams shot up the rankings.

The American conference is a bit wide open this season.

In previous years, it felt like there was a standard hierarchy, and the last few years have seen mainly the service academics, Memphis Tigers, North Texas Mean Green, South Florida Bulls, and the Green Wave.

In the last four seasons, Tulane has been in all the title games. They beat the UCF Knights and lost to the SMU Mustangs, both of whom are no longer in the American. They lost to Army and beat North Texas.

This year, none of that feels at all certain. The service academies are tumultuous, the Mean Green might look the strongest, the Tigers are contending, and the Bulls have some questions to answer after a loss to Temple.

A win over Army might not put any shine on the Green Wave’s resume. A two-game win streak over them and the Tigers might change perception a bit in favor of Tulane.