A big week for AAC football against the Power Five

The American Athletic Conference calls itself a "Power Six" league, its way of saying it's equal to the Power Five conferences.

So last week was one for the AAC to puff out its chest. AAC teams fared quite well against Power Five squads. Here are some examples:

Houston 45, Arizona 18.

South Florida 49, Georgia Tech 38.

East Carolina 41, North Carolina 19.

The AAC boasts that since the start of the 2015 season, it has 30 wins over Power Five opponents and Notre Dame.

Probably the most stunning win came from East Carolina, which had lost the previous week, 28-23, to North Carolina A&T and was 6-18 the previous two seasons.

"It gives us a recruiting platform in this state," East Carolina coach Scottie Montgomery said during the AAC conference call Monday.

The Pirates were supposed to travel to No. 13 Virginia Tech for a game this Saturday, but that has been postponed because of Hurricane Florence. ECU hopes the matchup can be rescheduled.

Central Florida's game, scheduled for Saturday at North Carolina also has been postponed because of the hurricane. The two schools are discussing a rescheduling of the matchup, UCF said.

After last week's 36-29 loss to Buffalo, Temple has dropped from ninth to 11th in this week's AAC power ratings, compiled by media members. Defending league champion Central Florida remains No. 1.

Here are the latest ratings.

1. Central Florida (2-0), 2. Houston (2-0),  3. South Florida (2-0), 4. Navy (1-1), 5. Cincinnati (2-0), 6. Memphis (1-1), 7. Tulsa (1-1), 8. Tulane (1-1), 9. East Carolina (1-1), 10. SMU (0-2), 11. Temple (0-2), 12. UConn (0-2).

A Memphis resident contributed to Navy's 22-21 win over visiting Memphis. Senior safety Sean Williams was named AAC defensive player of the week after recording nine tackles and two forced fumbles in the win.

"It was great for Sean, being a Memphis kid, to play well against guys he knows and grew up with," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said during this week's conference call.

The 6-foot-1, 197-pound Williams is a third-year starter.

"He is as good a safety as we have had since I have been here," said Niumatalolo, now in his 11th season at Navy.

Memphis is the defending West Division champion and was the preseason favorite to repeat. The Tigers should still contend for the division, with Navy and Houston the other main contenders.

SMU coach Sonny Dykes hasn't had the easiest of schedules with his new team. Under Dykes, the former head coach at Louisiana Tech and California, the Mustangs opened with a 48-23 loss to North Texas State then lost last week to current No. 15 TCU, 42-12. Now, the Mustangs must visit No. 19 Michigan on Saturday.

Then next week, SMU will host Navy. Two weeks after that, the Mustangs will visit No. 18 Central Florida. The real killer, though, will be the back-to-back games vs. ranked teams TCU and Michigan.

"It is certainly not ideal for a first-year coach to have that kind of schedule, but it is what it is," Dykes said in the conference call. "I don't think this will be our long-term scheduling plan moving forward."