Central Florida had the ball first, and fumbled. Houston grabbed it, and fumbled as well. Now comes South Florida, the third American Athletic Conference team with a chance to make its mark in the world of college football after compiling an 11-2 record last season, including a bowl win over South Carolina and a No. 19 national ranking.

The pressure is on, at least in the sense of trying to establish the Bulls as a legitimate big-time collegiate program. The other two couldn't handle it. After beating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl following the 2013 season, UCF went into collapse, culminating with a winless 2015 from which it is still trying to recover.

Houston came to prominence with an unexpected Peach Bowl win over Florida State in 2015, a season that also included wins over Louisville and Vanderbilt and a 13-1 record. That had some projecting the Cougars as possible national-title contenders last year.

And they started off with a bang by beating Oklahoma, only to tumble to a mediocre 9-4 as rumors swirled about the potential departure of Coach Tom Herman, who did leave after the season for Texas.

With the 2017 season fast approaching, expectations for USF are extremely high. The Bulls will be odds-on favorites to win their first American title. And, as was the case with Houston a year ago, there are whispers that USF, with a manageable schedule that could produce a 12-0 season plus the AAC championship, has an outside shot at a playoff berth.

This team should be good enough to be the highest-ranked team in the so-called Group of Five, the five conferences a notch below the Power Five (Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Pac 10), which would guarantee it a major bowl berth.

But a slip here, following in the footsteps of UCF and Houston, would only reinforce the national perception that the American and its teams are simply not competitive enough to be ranked with the Power 5 programs.

There is good reason for that. Neither the conference nor any of its teams have demonstrated that they can compete on a consistent basis with the best conferences and programs.

In its new "strategic plan," the American tries to break the mold by terming itself a member of the "Power Six," putting itself on a par with the major conferences. And to be fair, there is some evidence to show the American is reasonably competitive with one of the Power Five conferences, the Big 12.

For example the American was 2-2 against the Big 12 last year and had 15 NFL draft picks compared with 14 for the Big 12. And the American went 9-14 against Power 5 conferences plus Notre Dame, while the Big 12 was 6-8.

But what this really shows is that the Big 12, as a conference, isn't up to the standards of the other Power 5 members and that the Power 5 should probably be the Power 4.

As a conference, the American is never going to get to the top level. But a few of its teams, like USF, possess the resources to get there on their own. And that starts with beating Power 5 conference teams. Consistently.

So far, nobody's been able to do that.