College football conference championship week is here and programs have one last opportunity to clinch their spots or pad their résumés for the College Football Playoff.
From the Sun Belt to the Big Ten, teams will line up across two days to play for hardware and perhaps more football in the coming weeks. While not every league title game features playoff-bound juggernauts, or even teams hoping to sneak into the field, each matchup represents the best of the best in each conference this season.
Here’s Sports Illustrated’s guide on every conference championship this game, ranked from the least to most worth watching—plus, where to watch, if you plan on catching them all.
MAC: Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (7–5) vs. Western Michigan Broncos (8–4)
Saturday, noon ET, ESPN
Miami snuck into the conference championship game for the third straight season under longtime head coach Chuck Martin, eking out Toledo and Ohio on tiebreakers despite losing to both teams during the regular season. The RedHawks have had to use three different quarterbacks this season, but have reliable constants in running back Jordan Brunson and receiver Kam Perry, along with the third-best defense in the MAC which has racked up 38 sacks this season (tied for third in FBS). Western Michigan’s defense, led by edge rusher Nadame Tucker (12 sacks, four forced fumbles), is second in the conference while dual-threat quarterback Broc Lowry (2,447 total yards, 21 touchdowns) is a handful for opponents to deal with. The RedHawks got the best of the Broncos in the regular season, but that was in Oxford, Ohio. A trip to Ford Field should give the program based in Kalamazoo, Mich., an edge on Saturday.
Conference USA: Kennesaw State Owls (9–3) at Jacksonville State Gamecocks (8–4)
Friday, 7 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
It’s been a remarkable year for Kennesaw State under first-year coach Jerry Mack, turning a 2–10 program into a conference title game representative instantaneously. Mack will meet a fellow new coach in Charles Kelly, who returned to where he started as an assistant in the mid-1990s, to take over for Rich Rodriguez. The Gamecocks rolled through most of the conference last season, but were pushed on more than one occasion in 2025, losing to FIU and winning four of their seven conference games by a field goal or less. Jacksonville State won fairly comfortably over Kennesaw in mid-November, which bodes well for the program’s chances of going back to back.
Mountain West: UNLV Rebels (10–2) at Boise State Broncos (8–4)
Friday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox
While much has been made about the head-scratching tiebreakers in the ACC, perhaps not enough attention was paid to the four-way tie atop the Mountain West. Boise State and UNLV were given the nod based on the composite average of a handful of national metrics (for those of you keeping track at home: Connelly SP+, ESPN SOR, KPI and SportSource rankings), setting the stage for a third straight meeting in the league title game between the Broncos and the Rebels. Boise State has won the past two years and making it back this year without field general Maddux Madsen is even more impressive. But the Broncos had Madsen for a 56–31 thrashing of the Rebels during the regular season. And Dan Mullen’s program is hot, winning four straight going into this matchup and putting up gaudy numbers in the process. Can UNLV finally snap Boise State’s dominance? We’ll find out on the blue turf late Friday night.
Sun Belt: Troy Trojans (8–4) at No. 25 James Madison Dukes (11–1)
Friday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN
Given the fact that this game has major playoff ramifications for James Madison, this could be higher up on the watchability list, but it’s also without a doubt the most lopsided matchup of the bunch. The teams didn’t meet during the regular season, but given the way the Dukes steamrolled through the Sun Belt, winning against conference opponents by an average of 27.4 points per game, the Trojans have a tall task at hand. That doesn’t mean that James Madison can just coast to victory. The Dukes likely need to win convincingly to ensure the CFP committee doesn’t dock them at all after putting the program in a position to make the final field of 12 with a Top 25 nod in the penultimate rankings. There’s a chance that Troy’s defense (ranked third in the Sun Belt) could muddy the waters, but the Trojans are 12th out of 14 on offense and without much firepower going up against Bob Chesney’s fifth-ranked defense in the nation.
American: No. 24 North Texas Mean Green (11–1) at No. 20 Tulane Green Wave (10–2)
Friday, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
There could be a fair bit of awkwardness on the sidelines in this matchup as Eric Morris (North Texas to Oklahoma State) and Jon Sumrall (Tulane to Florida) may be coaching their final game at their current schools. It may come down to which program has been able to stay focused on the clear playoff path in front of them that will emerge as the Group of 5’s top representative. These teams didn’t meet in the regular season, and while the Green Wave may boast the more impressive résumé with two Power 4 victories, North Texas has better passed the eye test. Behind burgeoning freshman stars Drew Mestemaker (3,835 passing yards, 34 total touchdowns. 178.2 passer rating) and Caleb Hawkins (1,216 rushing yards, 26 total touchdowns), the Mean Green boast the top offense in the country and have scored 50-plus points in five of their last six games. Tulane can put points on the board, too, which should make for a high-scoring thriller with a trip to the playoff on the line.
ACC: Duke Blue Devils (7–5) vs. No. 17 Virginia Cavaliers (10–2)
Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ABC
The inflection point for the most significant chaos scenario the CFP committee has ever had to consider rests with the outcome in the ACC, the final title game of championship weekend. Five-loss Duke, playing in front of what’s sure to be a majority home crowd in Charlotte has a chance to win its first outright conference title since 1962—and possibly eliminate its own conference from the 12-team field in the process. While the ACC will be left to reevaluate its tiebreaker system in the offseason, Duke QB Darian Mensah (3,450 yards, 28 touchdowns, 155.7 passer rating) will lead Manny Diaz’s Blue Devils against Tony Elliott’s Cavaliers in a rematch of a mid-November game in Durham, N.C. Virginia cruised to a 17-point win behind two-touchdown days from QB Chandler Morris and RB J’Mari Taylor, a result the Hoos will need to duplicate to avoid a potential disaster for the ACC as a whole.
Big 12: No. 11 BYU Cougars (11–1) vs. No. 4 Texas Tech Red Raiders (11–1)
Saturday, noon ET, ABC
Kalani Sitake could’ve taken the same route as other coaches (ahem, Lane Kiffin) have done this cycle and committed to another gig (Penn State) while his current program (BYU) prepared for a playoff run. But a groundswell of support among Cougars supporters helped entice the former BYU fullback to stay at home in Provo, Utah. That may provide the surge of confidence the team needs to upset a Texas Tech team, which has looked unstoppable since a messy mid-October loss at Arizona State. The Red Raiders and their top-three scoring defense have beaten their last five opponents by an average of 35 points and already smashed BYU behind two turnovers generated by stealth Heisman candidate linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. Should the Cougars win, they’ll steal a bid, making for some very unhappy folks along the CFP bubble.
SEC: No. 9 Alabama Crimson Tide (10–2) vs. No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs (11–1)
Saturday, 4 p.m. ET, ABC
In terms of ramifications, this might’ve been one of the most meaningful games of the week had the CFP committee not elevated Alabama above Notre Dame and seemingly protected the Tide from getting bounced out of the field with a loss on Saturday. (No, a one-score win over 5–7 Auburn is not a résumé booster, no matter how you slice it.) That said, this is a must-watch matchup between the two powerhouses that have come to define the SEC for much of the past decade. The Crimson Tide went into Athens, Ga., and beat the Bulldogs, but that game was in late September and the Dawgs have had some major victories over the likes of Texas and Ole Miss since. Alabama, on the other hand, has lost to Oklahoma and had some scares along the way at South Carolina and in the Iron Bowl. This is the time of year where, historically, the Tide have risen to meet the moment, but that was largely under the leadership of Nick Saban. Kalen DeBoer still needs to prove himself in big games in the SEC and none has been as big as Saturday’s clash in Atlanta.
Big Ten: No. 2 Indiana Hoosiers (12–0) vs. No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes (12–0)
Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, Fox
Yes, you could make the argument that this matchup matters the least among the power-conference games this weekend for the College Football Playoff. If you want to take that very single-minded approach, we won’t stop you. But any game featuring the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country should be celebrated and appreciated—and that’s what we plan to do. The storylines are bountiful. Heisman front-runners Julian Sayin and Fernando Mendoza will have one last chance to make their case. Stars at receiver—Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, Omar Cooper Jr. and Elijah Sarratt—will try to cut up two of the best defenses in the country. Curt Cignetti will have a chance to further validate Indiana’s improbable run from historical Big Ten bottom-feeder to league champions for the first time since 1967. Ryan Day, free of his Michigan demons, can return Ohio State back to the top of the conference for the first time since 2020. This is a battle between juggernauts and is the type of matchup we should live for to close out any college football regular season.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ranking Which College Football Conference Championship Games Are Most Worth Watching.
