The 2016 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, held on Saturday, December 3, 2016, was the second football championship game for that conference. Houston defeated Temple, 24–13, in last year's game.

Teams

Navy

The Navy Midshipmen football team is a member of the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and five affiliate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) ...

in its West Division. They represented the West Division in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game. Navy hosted the title game. Since Navy and Temple both finished 7–1 in American play and did not play during the regular season, the next tiebreaker used to determine the home team was

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level ...

(CFP) ranking. Under American Conference rules, if one or both division champions enter the final week of conference play in the CFP rankings, the higher-ranked team will host, provided that it wins its game that week. Since Navy entered its conference finale against SMU at #25 in the CFP rankings, and won that game 75–31, the Midshipmen earned hosting rights. This was Navy's first ever conference championship appearance.

Temple

The

Temple Owls The Temple Owls are the athletic teams that represent Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current athletic director is Arthur Johnson. The owl has been the symbol and mascot for Temple University since its founding in the 1 ...

went 7–1 in

play, finishing 1st in the East Division for the second straight year. Due to their win over South Florida, they represented the East Division in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game. This was their second straight conference championship appearance. They were attempting to earn their first conference title since 1967, when the Owls were in the

Middle Atlantic Conference The Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC) is an umbrella organization of three athletic conferences that competes in the NCAA's Division III. The 18 member colleges are in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The organization is divided into two main c ...

Game summary

Source:

Statistics

References

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game Navy Midshipmen football games Temple Owls football games American football in Maryland December 2016 sports events in the United States 2016 in sports in Maryland {{Collegefootball-stub