Sports
AAC 2024 preview: Is Memphis the new favorite? Will UTSA or Tulane make a run?
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
The American Athletic Conference may have forever rebelled against the idea of a Group of 5, but it also spent most of the past decade ruling that universe. It nabbed seven of the G5’s last nine New Year’s Six bowl bids, scored maybe the two most impressive G5 wins of the era — Houston’s 38-24 thumping of Florida State in the 2015 Peach Bowl and UCF’s 34-27 win over Auburn in the 2017 Peach Bowl — and, through Cincinnati in 2021, landed the G5’s only College Football Playoff bid. (And as I will forever remind everyone, while the Bearcats might have gotten thumped by Alabama in the CFP, they fared better than Michigan did against Georgia on the same day.)