Yes, I get what you're saying, and I agree with you. UCF is a great example of that. They've basically been told they won't be making the playoffs this year. None of it is relevant to us at this point, this year.
Houston is at Oklahoma week 1, and has Washington State at home in week 2 in 2019. They potentially could be highly ranked if they win those two. Aside from that, they're at North Texas, then it's about all AAC from there, which could hold one or two more ranked teams.If they run the table this year and win the AAC, get a good enough preseason ranking for 2019, they could be in decent position next year.