For the thirteenth consecutive season, I will be publishing weekly columns late in the season which analyze all of the FBS conference championship races. Like my bowl bubble watch, there is not really a column like this on any other mainstream college football site. Bolded teams have already clinched their division or conference. Italicized teams are my predicted champions of their respective conferences/divisions at this point in time. This list is updated through all games played on November 26, 2022.
ACC Atlantic– Clemson
ACC Coastal– North Carolina
Big 12– TCU/Kansas State (The Wildcats and Horned Frogs will tangle in Jerry’s World next Saturday, with playoff implications on the line for TCU.)
Big Ten East– Michigan (For the second year in a row, the Wolverines upset the Buckeyes to win the division title in the final week of the season.)
Big Ten West– Purdue (I picked the Boilermakers to win this division in the preseason when no one believed me, and even though it wasn’t pretty, they ended up bringing my surprise pick to fruition.)
Pac-12– Southern Cal/Utah (Thanks to the weird and wild result yesterday in the Civil War, we will get a highly anticipated rematch between the Utes and Trojans. The first one was a classic in Salt Lake City, so we’ll see what this one brings on Friday night.)
SEC East– Georgia
SEC West– LSU
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American–Tulane/UCF (Thanks to their dramatic, come-from-behind victory over USF and Tulsa’s upset win over Houston, the Knights of UCF have earned a conference title game rematch in New Orleans against a Tulane team they already beat there earlier this season. The winner will earn a Cotton Bowl berth, and I will be in the Big Easy watching this colossal battle in-person next Saturday afternoon!)
Conference USA– UTSA/North Texas (It will be an all-Texas battle in next weekend’s C-USA title game!)
MAC East– Ohio (The Bobcats dominated Bowling Green on Tuesday night to clinch their first division title since 2016. Now they will look for their first conference championship since 1968 in their huge in-state battle vs. Toledo next Saturday.)
MAC West– Toledo
MWC Mountain– Boise State
MWC West– Fresno State
Sun Belt East– Coastal Carolina
Sun Belt West– Troy (The Trojans struggled early against lowly Arkansas State, but Troy ended up taking care of business against lowly Arkansas State to earn the right to host Coastal next Saturday for the conference crown.)
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In addition to my usual analysis above of every conference/division title race, I am going to be adding a new feature to this article this season by ranking each race based on the intrigue each provides and the importance each holds in the overall college football landscape. Here are my final rankings of all 16 division/conference championship races:
- Pac-12 (clinched by Southern Cal and Utah)
- Big 12 (clinched by TCU and Kansas State)
- Big Ten East (clinched by Michigan)
- AAC (clinched by Tulane and UCF)
- Big Ten West (clinched by Purdue)
- Conference USA (clinched by UTSA and North Texas)
- Sun Belt West (clinched by Troy)
- MAC East (clinched by Ohio)
- MWC Mountain (already clinched by Boise State)
- MWC West (already clinched by Fresno State)
- SEC West (already clinched by LSU)
- SEC East (already clinched by Georgia)
- ACC Coastal (already clinched by North Carolina)
- MAC West (already clinched by Toledo)
- Sun Belt East (already clinched by Coastal Carolina)
- ACC Atlantic (already clinched by Clemson)