Acme Packing Company
We’re finally at conference championship Saturday, when all the debates about who should be in or out of the playoff can finally end. All of the Power 4 have their championship games today, after most of the Group of 5 played their games last night.
Congrats to Tulane, James Madison, Kennesaw State and Boise State for winning their leagues. Kennesaw State is particularly shocking. They didn’t even join an FBS league until 2024, when they went 2-10 and 2-6 in Conference USA. This year, under new head coach Jerry Mack, the Owls posted a 10-3 record and went 7-1 in the conference. What a turnaround.
Let’s dive into Saturday’s action and break down who the big draft prospects are in each one of these games. As always, our rankings come from the top 250 players from the 2026 consensus draft board.
The last time these two teams faced each other, Texas Tech won by a score of 29-7. While that was nearly a month ago, don’t go assume that the Cougars have figured out a way to score on Tech, who has five likely draft picks in their front seven. Only one team has scored more than 20 on the Red Raiders this year: Arizona State in their upset win of then number seven Tech.
BYU’s playoff candidacy depends on them winning this game. If they fall to 11-2, they will likely be on the outside looking in. The team’s lone draft prospect is running back LJ Martin, a third-year back who was named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year. Funny enough, Martin, a West Texas native, was originally committed to play for Tech out of high school (along with Stanford).
Even by MAC standards, the MAC wasn’t good this year. Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan come into this game with a combined 15-9 record. Neither team has a draftable player. Honestly, I’m pretty surprised that this game is being shown on Saturday, instead of Friday, with the rest of the Group of Five title games. Maybe I’ll throw this game on if Texas Tech is running BYU off the field.
