Alma Mater Conference Fantasia Week 5: USA, USA!

The tabulation of the scores for our fantasy football experiment has become easier as the weeks roll by. This week we had an impressive showing from the sqaud over at Conference USA. I never really understood why they named the conference "Conference USA". The Conference began as a merger between the Metro and Great Midwest Conferences. The Great Midwest was always a fun conference to watch in basketball, but now we are in the era of super conferences and 7 teams will not do. C-USA had some performances that may show they can hang with the BCS boys throughout the season. This week's scores and standings after the break.

FCS 108
Big XII 73

The Big XII finally got a quarterback! Unfortunately, it was not the most memorable of games for Sage Rosenfels(Iowa State) but he did earn 9 points for the team. The rest of the conference had another bad week; Adrian Peterson(Oklahoma) struggled with only 3, Darren Sproles(Kansas St) has cooled off after having some big weeks as he had 4, and Roy Williams(Texas) and Wes Welker(Texas Tech) were the high offensive scorers with just 9 and 8 respectively. The highest score came from Cedric Griffin(Texas) on defense with 12.

After coming so close on prior weeks, the FCS picked up its first win. Kurt Warner(Northern Iowa) decided not to retire and instead finished with 19 points for the team. Terrell Owens(Chattanooga) and Donald Driver(Alcorn St) each had 12. Brandon Jacobs(S. Illinois) had a huge week with 25 and Brian Westbrook(Villanova) and Tim Hightower(Richmond) adding 15. Defensively Rashean Mathis(Bethune-Cookman) has been huge this year as he contributed another double-digit effort with 10.

Conf. USA 171
Pac Ten 131.5

On offense, every player for C-USA was in double digits. The high scorer in the league for the week was DeAngelo Williams(Memphis) who notched 32. Randy Moss(Marshall) had 18, Isaac Bruce(Memphis) had 16, Matt Forte(Tulane) had 17, and Roddy White(UAB) had 19. Brian Young(UTEP) became the first Miner to make the list this year with a 10 point effort on Monday night on the DL for the Saints.

The Pac Ten has lost two weeks in a row, but as was the case for the Packers, it wasn't Aaron Rodgers'(Cal) fault. He had 23 at QB, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh(Oregon St) added 20. But besides 18 from Reggie Bush(USC) and 12 from Gerg Camarillo(Stanford) the offense was just average. Rian Lindell(Wash St) had 13 in the kicking game and Lance Briggs(Arizona) was the high man on defense with 8.5.

Big East 88
MWACBELTIND 134.5

The Big East continues to struggle but unlike the Big XII they actually have won once this year. The only players that had in double figures were Larry Fitzgerald(Pitt) with 17, Steve Slaton(W. Virginia) with 21 and Gary Brackett(Rutgers) on defense with 10.

Our blended conference team is doing better than we anticipated. Perhaps we underestimated the potentcy of these non-BCS conferences. Jake Delhomme(LA-Lafayette) had 16 at QB while Bernard Berrian(Fresno St) had 17. Chris Cooley(Utah St) had 16 to lead all TEs and despite LaDanian Tomlinson(TCU) only getting 5, Travis LaBoy(Hawai'i) had 12 and Tramon Williams(LA Tech) had 13 on defense.

SEC 175
MAC 102

17 was the lucky number for the SEC this week as the following players each had that many points: Devery Henderson(LSU), Kevin Faulk(LSU), and Patrick Willis(Ole Miss). Ronnie Brown(Auburn) and Eli Manning(Ole Miss) each had 18.

The MAC struggled this week even though Ben Roethlisberger(Miami-OH) is getting much praise for his toughness. He finished with 23. Dominic Hixon(Akron) filled in well for the Giants and had 17. Michael Turner(N. Illinois) helped the Falcons stun Green Bay and had 18 points for the MAC in a losing effort.

ACC 174
Big Ten 147.5

The ACC had none other than Blue Suede Matt Ryan and his invisible Statue of Liberty lead the way at QB with 15. Who else but the U had a big week for the conference even though their college team is struggling. Andre Johnson with 19, Reggie Wayne 15(and a sick grab), Clinton Portis 21, Frank Gore 13, Sinorice(not Santanna) Moss 16, Edgerrin James 13 and LB D.J. Williams had 12 for Miami.

Kyle Orton(Purdue) had a big 22 points and that's right, he played the Lions. Lee Evans(Wisconsin) raked in 19 points and a contract extension. Only Muhsin Muhammed(Michigan St) and Neil Rackers(Illinois) with 13 scored in the teens for the rest of the line-up. The defensive high scorer of the week goes to Antoine Winfield(Ohio St) with 21 thanks to his MNF performance and an extra special nod to Martin Grammatica.

Here are the current standings for the league:

1. ACC 5-0
2. MWACBELTIND 4-1
3. Big Ten 3-2
4. Pac Ten 3-2
5. Conference USA 3-2
6. SEC 3-2
7. MAC 1-4
8. FCS 1-4
9. Big East 1-4
10. Big XII 0-5

Week 6 Match-Ups:
SEC vs. Conf. USA
ACC vs. MAC
FCS vs. Big Ten
Big XII vs. MWACBELTIND
Big East vs. Pac Ten