The second annual American Athletic Conference Championship Game is set for Saturday as No. 19 Navy hosts Temple in Annapolis. The Owls have made the AAC title game for the second straight year and they will be looking to go one better after losing 24-13 to Houston (in Houston) last time around. Navy is making its first appearance in this conference championship tilt and, after years of independence from college football conference affiliation, the storied Naval Academy is looking for its first football conference win in its history.
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This will be an interesting game for a number of reasons. Navy has been white hot as of late on offense, with quarterback Will Worth (who was the backup to begin the Mids' season) quickly becoming one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in school history. The Navy running game has seen them put up 66 points against East Carolina and 75 points against SMU over the past couple of outings, while Temple has given up just 10 points total in its last three contests of the regular season. The team that can continue their recent trend is going to be the team that wins the game.
The other main area of interest here is that a Navy win could potentially paralyze the bowl system. Navy is ranked just two spots behind Western Michigan for the highest placed Group of Five team and therefore an automatic bid to the Cotton Bowl — which is a New Year's Six Bowl Game. Navy still has one game to play AFTER its conference championship bout though, with the Army/Navy game happening next weekend. All in all a Mids win would send lots of people scrambling.
This video produced by the conference is a really cool look at the two teams. The early shots of Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo are telling as he is the reason behind this stunning streak of success the academy has enjoyed. Matt Rhule of Temple is also making quite a name for himself and the coaching battle will be just as interesting as the battle on the field come Saturday afternoon.
Find more videos like this on the American Athletic Conference YouTube Channel
