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Group of athletic conferences in college football From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In college football, the Group of Five are five athletic conferences whose members are part of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The five conferences are the American Athletic Conference (American or AAC),[lower-alpha 1] Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW)[lower-alpha 2] and Sun Belt Conference (SBC).[lower-alpha 3][1][2][3][4][5]
These conferences and their schools are generally considered less prestigious and generally have less political and financial influence over the sport and generate less overall revenue compared to Power 5 schools, with a 2016 ESPN analysis stating that the Athletic departments of the group of 5 schools generated $2 billion in total revenue, which was a third of the Power 5's $6 billion in revenue at the time.[6] The group of five are also perceived to have lower quality of play compared to the Power Five conferences and its member schools, although numerous Group of Five teams have upset Power Five teams in regular-season and bowl games. In 2021, the Cincinnati Bearcats appeared in the four-team College Football Playoff as a member of the American Athletic Conference.
Beginning in the 2024 season, at least one Group of Five conference champion is guaranteed entry to the College Football Playoff, as the top five ranked conference champions automatically advance to the playoff.[7]
The Group of Five conferences are five of the ten conferences in NCAA Division I FBS. Four of the other five FBS conferences are informally known as the Power Four,[1][2][3][5] and the Pac-12 Conference, stripped of all but two of its members in 2024 and will expand to 7 football-sponsoring teams plus one non-football member in 2026, is considered a de facto Group of Five equivalent.[8][9] In addition, a number of schools compete in FBS as independents in football.
The terms Group of Five and Power Four (Power Five before the collapse of the Pac-12) are not formally defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). However, each of the ten conferences is named in the NCAA's Division I manual.[10][11][12] A notable difference between the Group of Five and Power Five is the level of institutional autonomy granted to member institutions of the Power Five conferences.[13][14][15]
The Group of Five is often considered disadvantaged as compared to the Power Five, as its constituent members do not have similar access to New Year's Six or College Football Playoff bowls. Since the BCS era, this has been an ongoing area of contention among NCAA Division I schools.[3] In November 2012, an agreement was reached to guarantee a spot in one of the New Year's Six bowl games to a team from one of the Group of Five conferences, beginning with the 2014 football season.[5]
On December 5, 2021, Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team to gain entry into the College Football Playoff,[16] and the only team to do so in the original four-team format.
Beginning in the 2024 season at least one group of five conference champion will appear in the College Football Playoff as the 5 highest ranked conference champions receive an automatic birth to the playoff.
In sports other than football (mainly basketball), conferences outside of the Power Five are known as mid-major conferences.
The ten current FBS conferences are listed below. For the Group of Five, the football members of each conference are also listed.[lower-alpha 4] Independent NCAA Division I FBS teams are listed in a third table.
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