America’s conference gave us a truly spectacular set of match-ups last week, several of which had conference championship and therefore College Football Playoff implications. Unfortunately, this weekend’s slate looks a lot less competitive overall. Outside of Army’s game at Tulane — which will get its own set of articles from AFF — we really have just one contest that looks truly awesome.
Let’s get into it.
UTSA at North Texas (-3.5)
3:30 pm on ESPN+
Watching UNT (5-1, 1-1 in the American) slowly self-destruct at home against USF (5-1, 2-0 in the conference) last Friday, one couldn’t help feeling bad for North Texas QB Drew Mestemaker. Here we had a redshirt freshman playing in the highest-leverage game of his entire career in front of a sold-out hometown crowd, and he absolutely booted it. To that point in the season, Mestemaker had been both accurate and very careful with the football. He hadn’t turned it over all season. In the big game, though, he threw three dreadful interceptions and watched his running backs put the ball on the ground twice more, short-circuiting whatever opportunity his team might’ve had to try to win that crucially important game.
Friends, the mental and emotional aspects of competition tend to be the hardest part of sports. It takes real maturity to stay calm and perform under the brightest lights. Army fans have watched members of their own team try to catch lightning in a bottle and/or have some kind of out-of-body experience in big moments only to then throw interceptions or put the ball on the ground multiple times and thus lose otherwise winnable contests at home. North Texas fans have now seen this, too, and we can only hope that Mestemaker got it out of his system and has had a chance to refine his approach to big moments going forward.
It’s not as easy as it looks.
On the other side, we have an exceptionally talented UTSA team (3-3, 1-1 in the American) that hasn’t performed close to their preseason expectations. The Roadrunners now desperately need a win to both keep pace in the conference and to qualify for bowl season. UTSA looked solid in their opening week loss to Texas A&M, but they then dropped a rare home loss to Texas State in an insane shootout, followed by a too-competitive road game against a bad Colorado State team and another unlooked-for loss on the road at Temple. They bounced back last week at home last week against Rice, but they still have a lot to prove. UTSA has an outstanding running game, but their defense hasn’t performed as advertised, and their downfield passing attack hasn’t quite come together despite QB Owen McCown putting up solid numbers overall.
This should be an interesting contest. Minus last week, Mestemaker has been by far the more accurate quarterback this season, but UTSA’s rushing defense has looked astronomically better than North Texas’s. The Roadrunners also have one of the best rushing attacks in the entire country. If UTSA can bottle up UNT’s running game and put the burden entirely on Mestemaker’s shoulders, they might force the same kinds of mistakes we saw in North Texas’s game against USF. However, this game is at North Texas, and UTSA has not traveled particularly well at any point over the last two seasons. Moreover, given that Temple ran the ball effectively against these same Roadrunners, we should probably expect that North Texas will as well.
Both these teams have just one loss in the American. A win this week might therefore open a potential path to the conference championship game. At a minimum, the winner will get on track to a high-leverage bowl game. However, a second loss in the conference will put the loser of this contest firmly into “What could have been…?” territory.
Final note: the AFF Crew has no idea who decided to put this fascinating contest on the Plus, but somebody out there doesn’t know Ball. Network aside, this may very well wind up being your Game of the Week in the conference.
Week 7 Honorable Mention: @UTSAFTBL QB Owen McCown (Rusk HS, TX) #BirdsUp@OwenMcCown7 pic.twitter.com/UkZ4pDjT2J
— Earl Campbell Award (@CampbellAward) October 14, 2025
Other Conference Contests
Tulsa at East Carolina (-17.5)
This one kicks tonight at 7:30 pm ET on ESPN, and for what it’s worth, ECU (3-3, 1-1 in the conference) caught quite a break playing three Thursday night games in a row. This already lopsided contest might get completely out of hand given the day and time. After last week’s close loss to Tulane, ECU has something to prove.
Temple (-11.5) at Charlotte
Don’t look now, but the Owls (3-3, 1-1 in the American) have turned the corner and now have a very real shot at a bowl berth this postseason. They’ll get to 4-3 this week with a game at Tulsa (2-4, 0-3 in the conference) following immediately afterwards. After that, they’ll need just one upset over their final four games to qualify for a bowl berth.
This game kicks at 3:30 pm ET on the Plus.
#22 Memphis (-22.5) at UAB
The Blazers (2-4, 0-3 in the conference) finally fired Head Coach Trent Dilfer after their loss to FAU, but no force on Earth can fix their defense in time to keep this contest competitive against the best team in the conference. No idea why ESPN decided to put a mugging on national television, but hey, America will finally get a chance to see Memphis’s (6-0, 2-0 in the conference) backup quarterback get some quality game reps this week.
Tune in at 4:00 pm ET if you want to see a dead body.
Florida Atlantic (+21.5) at #19 USF
As noted, Florida Atlantic (3-3, 2-1 in the conference) beat the piss out of UAB last week, putting the Owls arguably into the upper half of the conference. However, USF is rolling, and they get this game at home. As much as FAU would like to keep this one competitive, they’re about to catch these Bulls’ horns.
ESPNU has this one, starting at 7:30 pm ET.
Final Thoughts
Though we’ve only got two games that look competitive this week, the conference staggered its TV schedule this week, making it pretty easy to follow all the action. That’s good. Beyond that, we’ll see if some of these underdogs can keep things interesting against some of the league’s bullies.
What are you watching, friends?
Go Army! Beat Tulane!!!
