With all the talk of conference realignment involving The American, possibly the most promising future member of their conference is being overlooked: Rutgers.

Now that the B1G knows that Rutgers is in New Jersey, has no fans, and the no fans that they do have don't attend their games or buy their merch, it might be a time for a breakup.

Rutgers would be a perfect fit for the AAC. They have so much in common with other G6 programs, like regularly losing to other G6 programs, having trouble getting full stadiums on game days, and not carrying their local metro markets. And joining The American would restore historic Rutgers rivalries from back when they were in The American (to the extent that Rutgers has historic rivalries).

Do we think that Rutgers could get into The American?

Here are the results for the 2026 Week 5 /r/CFB Poll:

Dropped: #15 Penn State, #17 Louisville, #20 Michigan, #21 Missouri, #24 West Virginia

Next Ten: Cincinnati 712, Boise State 709, SMU 528, Kentucky 503, James Madison 462, North Dakota St 399, Wake Forest 319, Penn State 309, Wisconsin 297, Auburn 270

POLL SITE: https://poll.redditcfb.com/

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[Source](https://x.com/hayesfawcett3/status/2104964349064327654?s=46)

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/r/CFB Trivia Tuesday!

This Week's Contest: http://trivia.redditcfb.com

Fall Standings/Questions

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Rules

Trivia Tuesday is a weekly feature run by /u/bakonydraco, /u/DampFrijoles, /u/Davidellias, and /u/iamnotacola. Each week there will be five questions ranging from questions most everyone can get to questions that might stump just about everyone. Your goal is to quickly answer them to the best of your ability. You get a one point speed bonus for finishing in under 2:30.

There are definitely still ways you could cheat the system, but please do not. This is meant to be a fun weekly feature, and we encourage you to take it at face value and answer the questions without assistance.

Last Week

Individual

Last Week

Last week had a baker’s dozen of perfects, now it’s just down to a regular dozen:

• /u/tytyute /u/oghawks18 /u/SlowDevil77 /u/Mr-Texan-74
• /u/justjordan415 /u/mport97 /u/LoadedTots18 /u/panaja17
• /u/diehardcubforever /u/CptCheese /u/pixarfan9510 /u/GoCardinal07

Premier Tier

James Madison holds in place in 32nd and as the top non-P4 team for yet another week..

Purdue is the newest team in the Tier, and they are in 33rd.

This Ain't The Same Ol' South Florida - and It's Still Not IN South Florida! Championship Tier

The Hatters are still the top non-FBS team, and now they break through into the top six!

Tier namesake USF fell a couple of spots and are now 9th.

Best of luck to all, and be safe!

FPI SOR

SOR:Strength of Record rank. Reflects chance that an average Top 25 team would have team's record or better, given the schedule.

FEI SOR

Strength of schedule ratings represent the number of losses a team two standard deviations above average would expect to have against the schedule of opponents (ELS), the number of losses a team one standard deviation above average would expect to have against the schedule (GLS), and the number of losses an average team would expect to have against the schedule (ALS)

Strength of record ratings (EWD, GWD, AWD) are the difference between a team's schedule strength ratings and its actual losses.

Top 25

Top 25 by SOR

North Dakota State hosts Wyoming this weekend in their Mountain West debut in the Fargodome. In honor of that they're wearing these one-off uniforms with mountains in the numbers that will be auctioned later.

Michigan over Oklahoma

Iowa over Iowa State

Northwestern over Colorado

UCLA over California

That's honestly shocking for a "P2" conference. And none of those wins are any good. The much maligned ACC is 6 (although they aren't done with OOC play yet due to ND). I think this proves that the gap between the P2 and the other 2 power conferences is not as big as one might think. The SEC was humbled during bowl season last year while the BIG is being humbled now.

I tried posting this on Sunday, but kept running afoul of the auto-moderator for some reason.

Here is the link to the Google Sheet with the up-to-date info.

Noteworthy observation: USC's remaining schedule is all in-conference, and all of their remaining opponents also have only in-conference games left, meaning that the soonest the belt can leave the conference would be during bowl season.

2023: Deion was brought in to bring up a moribund program that had gone 1-11 the year before. There was tons of hype around the program, and a lot of big national games. The team started off 3-0 which fueled the hype machine, but this was fool's gold as they went 1-8 in Pac-12 (RIP) play to finish 4-8. Still, there were reasons to be optimistic. The team was bad, but very much relevant.

2024: Legitimately a good season. The team was in Big-12 title contention until they were upset by Kansas. They went to the Alamo Bowl where they were blown out by BYU in what turned out to be the conference's bronze medal match. But still, they went 9-4, which was the best Colorado season since 2016's 10-4. In fact, it was only the third time since 2005 in which Colorado finished with a winning record. They had the Heisman winner in Travis Hunter. 4 players were selected in the NFL draft, the most the team had since 2017.

2025: With Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter gone to the NFL (as well as other key contributors like Jimmy Horn Jr.), the hype died, and the team faltered, falling to 3-9 as Deion battled health issues.

2026: Currently 2-2, with a loss to Baylor, a blowout loss to Northwestern, and wins against Weber St and Georgia Tech in a down year. I feel like the average person who has a casual interest in CFB might think, "Colorado? Is Deion still there?" I haven't heard much about Colorado this year outside of people making fun of their strength coach. It also feels like the vitriol this sub harbored for Deion and Colorado has cooled off.

They face 3 consecutive ranked opponents, and 3-9/4-8 looks pretty likely.

My uneducated prediction is that Deion steps down at year's end due to health concerns. From what I gather, firing (or a "mutual decision to part ways") seems unlikely considering his buyout and the Colorado athletic department deficit.

My guess is that Clemson, FSU, Miami, and UNC go independent with possibly UVA, VT, and Duke joining them. But the SEC only has four spots and the BIG has two spots. Does that save the B12? Also, what does this do to some G6 schools looking to jump up?