Memphis football continues to climb in polls with division title in sight

The Memphis football team continued to climb in the national rankings even though it didn't play a game this week.

The Tigers moved up two spots to No. 17 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll and to No. 18 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 rankings on Sunday. This is the highest Memphis ever has been ranked in the AP poll this late in the season.

The Tigers' path to their first American Athletic Conference West division title also is becoming clearer after this week's bye.

After SMU lost to Navy on Saturday, Memphis (8-1, 5-1) needs to win only one of its final two regular-season games to clinch its first appearance in the AAC championship game on Dec. 2. The only way the Tigers won't win the division at this point is if they lose their final two games while either Houston (6-3, 4-2) or SMU (6-4, 3-3) wins its last two games.

Memphis enters this Saturday's matchup with SMU (11 a.m., ESPNews) at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium riding a five-game winning streak. It then closes the regular season against East Carolina (2-8, 1-5) at home on Nov. 25.

"Our excitement level is definitely high," quarterback Riley Ferguson said last week about potentially securing a division title against SMU. "I know a lot of guys are anxious on the team. We're anxious to get this game over with, go out and play SMU."

"But it's what we've been shooting for. For all the goals we set for ourselves, this is the one thing that has to get accomplished before all the other ones can get accomplished."

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There's also still a chance Memphis could host the AAC championship game if Central Florida loses its final game of the regular season to South Florida.

If South Florida wins the AAC East division title and has the same league record as the Tigers, the tiebreaker would go to the team ranked higher in the College Football Playoff selection committee rankings heading into the final week of the regular season.

Should Memphis win its final two regular-season games and the AAC championship, it probably would earn a spot in a New Year's Six bowl game; the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion in the CFP rankings is granted an automatic berth.

On Sunday, Central Florida (No. 12 in coaches poll; No. 14 in AP rankings) and South Florida (No. 20 in coaches poll; No. 23 in AP rankings) were the only other Group of Five schools to be ranked.

As of last week, Central Florida was slotted at No. 18 and Memphis was ranked No. 22 in the CFP rankings. South Florida was unranked. The newest batch of CFP rankings will be released Tuesday night.

"We've got to stay focused," wide receiver Anthony Miller said. "We can't stray away from what got us here. We just got to stay the course and not do anything brand new. We know what we got to accomplish."