The first College Football Playoff committee rankings were notably devoid of the American Conference.
That is no longer the case with the second batch of rankings. The Week 12 top 25 featured the South
Florida Bulls at No. 24. Despite holding an AP Poll ranking for the entire 2017 season, this marks the first time South Florida has ever been ranked by the CFP selection committee.
South Florida (7-2, 4-1 American) likely controls its own destiny for a spot in the 2025 College Football Playoff after Tuesday night’s reveal. The Bulls have been quite dominant in victories this year, picking up six different wins by 27 points or greater, including dominations of 8-1 North Texas and 6-3 Boise State. South Florida only has two defeats on the résumé — a 49-12 shellacking at Miami (FL) and 34-31 heartbreaker at Memphis decided on a missed field goal at the buzzer.
Last week, Memphis was absent from the top 25, but the committee revealed the Tigers were the highest-ranked American Conference team when revealing the bracket. This specific news was revealed because the five highest-ranked conference champions clinch automatic bids in the playoff, yet only four conferences were represented in the top 25, so the Tigers were included in the bracket. That is no longer the case this week as the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, ACC, and American are all present in the rankings. If the season ended today, No. 12 seed South Florida would battle No. 5 seed Georgia in a first round playoff matchup in Athens, GA.
South Florida’s remaining schedule consists of a road game at 7-2 Navy, a second-straight road contest at 3-6 UAB, and a home finale against 5-5 Rice. The Bulls control their own destiny to host the American Conference Championship Game — a spectacle which they have never appeared in despite membership in the league since 2013. USF looks to ride is up-tempo No. 5 ranked scoring offense as well as an aggressive defense which ranks No. 7 in the FBS in turnovers created as it strives to become the second team in American Conference history to qualify for the CFP.
The full rankings are below:
