The American Athletic Conference football divisions were officially announced today by conference commissioner Mike Aresco.
Beginning with the 2015 season after Navy joins the conference, the American will have East and West Divisions with six teams in each.
East
UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, USF, Temple
West
Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa
The conference will continue to play an eight-game football schedule. Each team will play five games against the other teams in their division plus three from the opposite division.
The division winners will then meet in the American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, which will be played at the home site of the higher ranked team.
“This is an exciting step in the continued development of our conference,” said Aresco. “With our performance on the field and the exposure we received from our media partners, I couldn’t be more satisfied with our first year of American Athletic Conference football. Creating this divisional format will allow us to build upon that success. Our fans will enjoy our divisional play and the championship game that will be established in 2015.
“The East-West format we have adopted gives each division a distinct identity, provides long-term competitive balance and protects traditional rivalries while allowing each school to travel across the conference’s geographical footprint on a regular basis.”
View Comments (28)
I would like to know why Navy is in the West. Cincinnati would have made more sense there.
They reportedly asked to be there so they could play more games in Texas.
Navy came out and said they wanted to be in the west.
Switching Navy and Cincinnati would make more sense geographically. I bet Cincinnati demanded to be in the East to tie into Florida recruiting.
I think both schools are fine with that. Cincy heavily recruits Florida, Navy recruits Texas.
As a Navy fan, I really hope we don't have to put up with this conference experiment for more than a season or two. No offense to any of the teams in the conference, but not a single one of them excites me. I'm happy to play any of them occasionally, but Tulane, Tulsa, Memphis, SMU and Houston on the schedule every single year... no thanks. Plus with 8 conference games and Army, Air Force and ND on the schedule every year, we have almost zero schedule flexibility.
I agree Dan. No need for Navy to do this. They're Navy and would be just fine as an independent, much better than BYU. Patriotism alone guarantees them the ability to schedule well. Same for Army and Air Force to a certain extent. No need for Navy to join a conference. Next to ND, the most attractive independent.
I honestly didn't know Navy had football fans. Nice to meet you
Navy joined the conference because it means more $. Get used to it. They are not leaving.
Navy is very happy to be in the West Division so they can play more games in Texas.
I wish the American would add UMASS and Rice, and stay at an 8 game Conference schedule, and require one game with the Big Group of 5 every year as well?
The American would be WAY better off to add Air Force and Army. Bring the Commander-In-Chief trophy in conference. Perfecting branding move.
The American did invite Army. They turned them down as they felt they couldnt be competitive. They were not competitive years earlier when they were in Conference USA. UMass is not coming as the conference doesn't feel they add any economic value to the conference. UMass will head to Sun Belt for football only. BYU is who the conference really covets. If BYU ever agreed to join, it would open up other schools out west joining them. (San Diego St again, conference would hold their nose and invited Boise St again)
Air Force declined to join conference previously.
Rice makes zero sense. They already have the Houston market covered with UH. If they wanted to add another Texas team it would be UTSA no question. No need for 2 teams in Houston. And UH would never allow that
Navy has done what they could to try and stay relevant. Army has seemingly given up scheduling down to get a few wins while waiting for the Navy game. Air Force is perfectly happy in the MWC, thank you very much.
All I know is I'm pretty excited about this AAC divisional breakdown, especially looking at the East. Those who think Navy won't have real competitive conference play year in and year out need to think twice and worse case scenario Navy can always stack up its out of conference schedule by adding a p5 team every year. I feel every team in the AAC should play 2-3 p5 games every season and just do what they can to get talent in the conference and even try to persuade BYU and Boise St. to join. If that happened, oh man! Don't underestimate this conference people, if you do you'll probably look as dumb as ESPN annalists looked when they made their predictions for the 2013 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
I think that geographically they should have gone to this direction
North: UCONN Temple Cincy Memphis Navy ECU
South: SMU Houston Tulsa Tulane UCF USF
No way one would split ECU and UCF. That's one of the better new rivalries.
Tough slate for the eastern division teams. Temple is really going to struggle in this set up.
UH doesn't cover the Houston market. They typically draw 20,000 in a city of 4 million.
UTSA would be a great add if UConn left or the conference wanted to expand further. San Antonio is a football crazy area with no other competition in the city (no NFL or major college team in the city). To the guy that said Houston only draws 20k in a city of 4 million - It's not just about attendance, it's about television markets. I would venture to say most of the people in Houston are probably aTm, Texas, Baylor, Texas Tech, etc fans first - then Houston fans after that. A lot may not spend money to go to the game, but would watch if Houston was playing SMU on a cable channel. I live in Tulsa & can tell you that first hand. A ton of people here are Oklahoma State or Oklahoma fans, but also want Tulsa to win (except when they play each other). For instance, I will watch Tulsa games on tv, but rarely go to them in person (unless it's a Thursday or Friday night game). Just saying it's not a simple - if I'm a fan of school x (big 5 school) then I won't be interested in following school y's season (non AQ smaller school).
UH alumni only funded 50% of the new stadium. Increased student fees were slapped on future students or there would have been no stadium. Naming rights have been cut in half and still no takers. Texas, aTm, Baylor, Texas Tech and UTSA fans do not care about UH football.