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), Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MW or MWC) and Sun Belt Conference (SBC).[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
These conferences are generally considered less prestigious and are perceived to have lower quality of play compared to the Power Five conferences, 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.[6]
The Group of Five conferences are five of the ten conferences in NCAA Division I FBS. The other five FBS conferences are informally known as the Power Five. In addition, a number of schools compete in FBS as independents in football.
The terms Group of Five and Power Five are not formally defined by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the precise origins of the terms are unknown. However, each of the ten conferences is named in the NCAA's Division I manual.[7] [8] [9] 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.[10] [11] [12]
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. 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.
On December 5, 2021, Cincinnati became the first Group of Five team to gain entry into the College Football Playoff,[13] and the only team to do so in the original four-team format.
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. Independent NCAA Division I FBS teams are listed in a third table.
| American< | --The conference does not use "AAC" to refer to itself.--> | CUSA | MAC | Mountain West | Sun Belt | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Football Members | Football Members | Football Members | Football Members | East Division | ||||||
| Rice | Kent State | Appalachian State | ||||||||
| South Florida | Miami (OH) | Coastal Carolina | ||||||||
| Temple | Sam Houston | Northern Illinois | San Jose State | |||||||
| Ohio | Utah State | Georgia State | ||||||||
| Toledo | UNLV | James Madison | ||||||||
| UAB | Western Michigan | Wyoming | Marshall | |||||||
| UTSA | Old Dominion | |||||||||
| Power Four conferences | |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Coast Conference | |
| Big Ten Conference | |
| Big 12 Conference | |
| Southeastern Conference |
| Pac-12 Conference | |
|---|---|
| Oregon State | |
| Washington State |
| Independent teams | |
|---|---|
| Notre Dame | |
| UConn | |
| UMass |