Houston seals AAC West with 52-31 win over Navy

We won't have to wait six extra days for the final set of College Football Playoff rankings.

The Houston Cougars clinched a berth in the AAC Championship Game with a 52-31 win over Navy Friday afternoon. The game was a de facto West Division title game and the Cougars' offense was unstoppable.

The defense wasn't too bad either. While Navy did have four touchdowns, the Cougars forced Navy to use the passing game much more than the Midshipmen planned. Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds' 312 passing yards were a season high. His previous season high? 134 yards against Tulane.

The Cougars had a 24-14 lead at halftime and took a 38-17 lead early in the second half thanks to this great Demarcus Ayers touchdown catch.

Ayers then made the game 45-24 with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Linell Bonner. The wide receiver pass capped off a 96-yard drive that asserted Houston's dominance. Navy had chances to get back into the game in the second half if the defense could prevent the Cougars from moving the ball. The prevention never happened.

Houston had 555 yards of total offense. The Midshipmen tried to keep up with 459, but many of those were second half passing yards for Reynolds. Navy ran for just 147 yards the entire game as Houston's weekly option defense had paid off. The Cougars spent time during every in-season Sunday practice working through Navy's offensive sets.

The Cougars, now 11-1 and 7-1 in the American, will face the winner of the Temple-South Florida game Saturday for the AAC Championship next week. And the winner of the title game will likely be the recipient of the New Year's Six bowl berth for the highest-ranked team outside of the Power Five conferences.

Had Navy won Friday and clinched the West, the Midshipmen would be playing in the AAC title game a week before finishing the season against Army. Because of the Army game, the playoff rankings would have been delayed until following the game on December 12 if Navy was the highest-ranked team in the rankings and had a shot at that New Year's Six slot.

But since the Midshipmen lost, Navy won't be in that position and are heading to the Military Bowl to play an ACC team.

Reynolds did tie another record in the loss. After breaking Montee Ball's record for career rushing touchdowns in FBS, he tied Ball's record of 83 total rushing and receiving touchdowns on Friday. Barring an unexpected shutout against Army, he'll set that record in two weeks.