What The College Football Playoff Committee Said About Army, Tulane, and the AAC Title Race

Joe Londergan | Nov 14, 2024

Nov 9, 2024; Denton, Texas, USA; Army Black Knights cornerback Donavon Platt (28) celebrates after making an interception against the North Texas Mean Green during the second half at DATCU Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Danny Wild-Imagn Images / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

This week's latest top 25 from the College Football Playoff committee featured two teams from the American Athletic Conference. The 9-0 Army Black Knights moved up to #24 from #25. Then, the 8-2 Tulane Green Wave broke into the rankings for the first time this season at #25.

Army leads the conference, while Tulane are just behind them in second place. At this point in the season, the winner of the AAC championship will be in a strong position to make the playoff, if #13 Boise State are unable to clinch the Mountain West Conference championship.

In a teleconference following the rankings reveal, Michigan Athletic Director and CFP Selection Committee Chair Warde Manuel commented to G5 Football Daily after being asked about the committee's assessment of the AAC title race down the stretch with those two teams being where they are in the rankings. Read the full quote below.

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"Yeah, they've both had successful seasons thus far. Strength of schedule is not as strong as others. But we do realize that Army has won consistently up until this week. I think this week was the first time -- even though they won in double digits, that they didn't score over 20 points in the game, but they held a very good North Texas team to only three points. I think they were one or two in every offensive category in the conference. We were impressed by that."

"Tulane moved into -- they had a very impressive win against Temple, and obviously a team as we analyzed them that is really playing well since their early losses. They have consistently won, I want to say off the top of my head, seven games in a row."

"We've been watching them and obviously looking at Army the entirety of the last two weeks that we've been meeting. In our deliberations, they earned being in the spots that they're in, and we'll keep monitoring their progress, and it may come down to the championship game."

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Army are on a bye this week, but will face #8 Notre Dame on November 23 at Yankee Stadium.

Tulane play this Saturday at Navy, who are just behind the Green Wave in the AAC standings. That game is scheduled for Noon ET on ESPN2.

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