{"id":308473,"date":"2025-08-22T11:44:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/308473\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:44:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:44:13","slug":"group-of-5-college-football-conference-predictions-can-anyone-catch-boise-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/308473\/","title":{"rendered":"Group of 5 college football conference predictions: Can anyone catch Boise State?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last season marked the first time the Group of 5 was ever guaranteed a shot at a national championship, and after being penciled in for the No. 12 seed in many preseason predictions for the newly expanded College Football Playoff, Boise State instead took Oregon to the last second in September, won the Mountain West and earned a first-round bye as the No. 3 seed. This year\u2019s CFP seeding changes<\/a> might make another rise like that impossible, but a spot in the field remains up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Will Boise State earn it again? Will the American\u2019s top schools survive an offseason of change? Could a deep Sun Belt finally produce the G5\u2019s top-ranked champion for the first time in the CFP era? With what should be another exciting Group of 5 season, here are predictions for every conference.<\/p>\n

Championship game prediction: Tulane over Navy
Offensive Player of the Year: Navy QB Blake Horvath
Defensive Player of the Year: Tulane LB Sam Howard<\/p>\n

Top newcomers: Florida Atlantic QB Caden Veltkamp (WKU), North Texas LB Trey Fields (Sam Houston), Tulane QB Jake Retzlaff (BYU), Memphis QB Brendon Lewis (Nevada), Charlotte LB Shay Taylor (Ohio)<\/p>\n

The American (not the AAC anymore)<\/a> has a lot of new faces in prominent places, with frontrunners Army, Tulane, and Memphis all breaking in new quarterbacks and new coaches at Temple, FAU, Charlotte, Rice and Tulsa trying to lift those programs out of the basement. The middle of the league could be strong if quarterbacks at UTSA, USF and East Carolina take a step forward. But Tulane should have the best defense in the league, and an experienced Navy squad should build off last year\u2019s 10-win season.<\/p>\n

Championship game prediction: Liberty over Western Kentucky
Offensive Player of the Year: WKU QB Maverick McIvor
Defensive Player of the Year: Louisiana Tech LB Kolbe Fields<\/p>\n

Top newcomers: WKU QB Maverick McIvor (Abilene Christian), Jacksonville State RB Cam Cook (TCU), Liberty QB Ethan Vasko (Coastal Carolina), New Mexico State QB Logan Fife (Montana), UTEP RB Hahsaun Wilson (Charlotte)<\/p>\n

Liberty and Western Kentucky should be back atop this conference if they live up to their talent. WKU has once again imported an FCS offense, grabbing McIvor and offensive coordinator Rick Bowie from Abilene Christian<\/a>. UTEP and New Mexico State are hoping some roster stability could get them into bowl contention, and FBS newcomers Delaware and Missouri State come from the Football Championship Subdivision after winning seasons. Last year showed anything can happen in this league.<\/p>\n

Championship game prediction: Toledo over Buffalo
Offensive Player of the Year: Ohio QB Parker Navarro
Defensive Player of the Year: Buffalo LB Red Murdock<\/p>\n

Top newcomers: Miami (Ohio) QB Dequan Finn (Baylor), Buffalo QB Ta\u2019Quan Roberson (UConn), Bowling Green QB Drew Pyne (Missouri), Ohio RB Sieh Bangura (back from Minnesota)<\/p>\n

Some old MAC faces are back in Finn, who started at Toledo, and Bangura, who returned to Ohio after a year in the Big Ten. The league was otherwise decimated by the transfer portal, but it offers a lot of room for upward mobility. NIU and Miami (Ohio) have continued to win despite roster turnover, but Toledo and Buffalo are the most experienced and talented teams. The Rockets should have a good offense behind quarterback Tucker Gleason, while Buffalo looks to have the best defense in the MAC. Also, UMass returns to the league after nine seasons of football independence.<\/p>\n

Championship game prediction: Boise State over UNLV
Offensive Player of the Year: Boise State QB Maddux Madsen
Defensive Player of the Year: Boise State DL Jayden Virgin-Morgan<\/p>\n

Top newcomers: New Mexico QB Jack Layne (Idaho), New Mexico LB Jaxton Eck (Idaho), UNLV QB Anthony Colandrea (Virginia), Fresno State QB EJ Warner (Rice), Colorado State LB JaQues Evans (Baylor), Boise State RB Malik Sherrod (Fresno State), San Diego State QB Jayden Denegal (Michigan)<\/p>\n

Boise State has been picked to win its conference or division 18 years in a row, and while the hit rate is not as good as you might expect, the Broncos look loaded again coming off a CFP appearance. Ashton Jeanty is gone, but a stable of backs led by Sire Gaines and Malik Sherrod should be plenty. Don\u2019t sleep on San Jose State, which brings back quarterback Walker Eget and avoids Boise State and UNLV. The Rebels are admittedly a mystery with a completely new team and coaching staff. Teams like Colorado State, San Diego State and Hawaii would like to see a step forward this year.<\/p>\n

Championship game prediction: James Madison over Louisiana
Offensive Player of the Year: Southern Miss QB Braylon Braxton
Defensive Player of the Year: Old Dominion LB Jason Henderson<\/p>\n

Top newcomers: Southern Miss QB Braylon Braxton (Marshall), Louisiana QB Walker Howard (Ole Miss), James Madison QB Matthew Sluka (UNLV), Southern Miss DB Josh Moten (Marshall), ULM RB Zach Palmer-Smith (Richmond)<\/p>\n

James Madison just keeps winning and should again, whether Alonza Barnett III or Sluka wins the starting quarterback job, but this also could be Clay Helton\u2019s best team at Georgia Southern. Louisiana has righted the ship under coach Michael Desormeaux. Can Texas State replace a lot of pieces and get into the conference title mix? Southern Miss importing former Marshall coach Charles Huff and a slew of players just after the Thundering Herd won a Sun Belt title is one of the more interesting coaching\/roster changes we\u2019ve seen in years.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Christian Petersen \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last season marked the first time the Group of 5 was ever guaranteed a shot at a national…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21201,12172,21191,21206,7213,4733,3577,4735,21178,331,6871,4706,4709,21195,51310,21183,7,11360,21185,21180,26982,44062,21186,3823,3364,21192,21184,4712,49,48,21160,4591,21200,41096,21182,3329,26118,21177,21188,21208,4431,29930,5041,4734,4711,22804,16793,1442,6713,4616,4731,4730,4736,8498],"class_list":{"0":"post-308473","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-air-force-falcons","9":"tag-akron-zips","10":"tag-army-black-knights","11":"tag-ball-state-cardinals","12":"tag-boise-state-broncos","13":"tag-bowling-green-falcons","14":"tag-buffalo-bulls","15":"tag-central-michigan-chippewas","16":"tag-charlotte-49ers","17":"tag-college-football","18":"tag-colorado-state-rams","19":"tag-connecticut-huskies","20":"tag-east-carolina-pirates","21":"tag-eastern-michigan-eagles","22":"tag-fiu-golden-panthers","23":"tag-florida-atlantic-owls","24":"tag-football","25":"tag-fresno-state-bulldogs","26":"tag-hawaii-rainbow-warriors","27":"tag-kent-state-golden-flashes","28":"tag-louisiana-lafayette-ragin-cajuns","29":"tag-louisiana-monroe-warhawks","30":"tag-louisiana-tech-bulldogs","31":"tag-marshall-thundering-herd","32":"tag-memphis-tigers","33":"tag-miami-oh-redhawks","34":"tag-middle-tennessee-blue-raiders","35":"tag-navy-midshipmen","36":"tag-ncaa","37":"tag-ncaa-football","38":"tag-nevada-wolf-pack","39":"tag-new-mexico-state-aggies","40":"tag-new-mexico-lobos","41":"tag-north-texas-mean-green","42":"tag-northern-illinois-huskies","43":"tag-ohio-bobcats","44":"tag-old-dominion-monarchs","45":"tag-rice-owls","46":"tag-san-diego-state-aztecs","47":"tag-san-jose-state-spartans","48":"tag-south-florida-bulls","49":"tag-southern-mississippi-golden-eagles","50":"tag-temple-owls","51":"tag-toledo-rockets","52":"tag-tulane-green-wave","53":"tag-tulsa-golden-hurricane","54":"tag-umass-minutemen","55":"tag-unlv-rebels","56":"tag-utah-state-aggies","57":"tag-utep-miners","58":"tag-utsa-roadrunners","59":"tag-western-kentucky-hilltoppers","60":"tag-western-michigan-broncos","61":"tag-wyoming-cowboys"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}