American Athletic Conference

American Athletic Conference (The American)
Established	May 31, 1979 (as the Big East) July 1, 2013 (reorganized as The American)
Association	NCAA
Division	Division I FBS
Members	11 (10 Full Members, 1 Associate Member) 12 (11 Full Members, 1 Associate Member) in 2014 13 (11 Full Members, 2 Associate Members) in 2015
Sports fielded	21 (men's: 10; women's: 11)
Region	Southern (6 schools) Northeastern (4 schools) Midwestern (1 school)
Former names	Big East (1979–2013)
Headquarters	Providence, Rhode Island
Commissioner	Michael Aresco (since 2013)
Website	theamerican.org
Locations

The American Athletic Conference is a collegiate athletic conference with member institutions located in the Northeast, Midwest, and Southern regions of the United States.^[1][2] The conference is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, and led by Commissioner Michael Aresco.^[2][3] The American participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I in athletic competitions; for football, it is a part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).

The majority of the conference's member institutions are located in urban metropolitan areas. The conference is one of two successors to the all-sports Big East Conference (1979–2013). While the other successor, which does not sponsor football, kept the Big East Conference name, the American Athletic Conference inherited the old Big East's structure and is that conference's legal successor. However, both conferences claim 1979 as their founding date, and the same history up to 2013.^[4][5]The prior league underwent substantial turmoil during the 2010–13 NCAA conference realignment period.

The American Athletic Conference is currently one of the six automatic qualifying conferences or AQ of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), also known as a "Power Six Conference." The conference inherited the old Big East's BCS berth for the 2013 season.^[6] However, the new conference will lose its automatic berth as part of the upcoming College Football Playoff in 2014 and become a part of the "Group of Five", which shares automatic access to one spot in the six premier bowl games. The other four conferences in the group are Conference USA (C-USA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference.^[7]

HistoryEdit

The original Big EastEdit

• Main article: Big East Conference (1979–2013)

The original Big East Conference was founded in 1979 as a basketball conference, when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Connecticut, Holy Cross, Rutgers, and Boston College.^[8][9] Holy Cross soon thereafter declined the invitation, and Rutgers eventually declined and remained in the Atlantic 10 Conference (then known as the Eastern 8 Conference). Seton Hall was then invited as a replacement.^[9] Villanova and Pittsburgh joined shortly thereafter under the leadership of the Big East's first commissioner, Dave Gavitt.^[10][11][12]

The conference remained largely unchanged until 1991, when it began to sponsor football, adding Miami as a full member, and Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia as football-only members.^[13] Rutgers and West Virginia upgraded to full Big East membership in 1995, while Virginia Tech did the same in 2000. Temple football was kicked out after the 2004 season, but rejoined in 2012 and intended to become a full Big East member in 2013.

The unusual structure of the Big East, with the "football" and "non-football" schools, led to instability in the conference.^[14] The waves of defection and replacement brought about by the conference realignments of 2005 and 2010–13 revealed tension between the football-sponsoring and non-football schools that eventually led to the split of the conference in 2013.^[15]

Realignment and reorganizationEdit

Template:Rellink The conference was reorganized following the tumultuous period of realignment that hobbled the Big East between 2010 and 2013. The Big East was one of the most severely impacted conferences during the most recent conference realignment period. In all, 14 member schools announced their departure for other conferences, and 15 other schools announced plans to join the conference (eight as all-sports members, and four for football only). Three of the latter group later backed out of their plans to join (one for all sports, and the other two for football only). Most notably, seven schools — the Catholic 7 — announced in December 2012 that they would leave as a group, later forming the New Big East.^[16]

On December 15, the Big East's seven remaining non-FBS schools, all Catholic institutions — DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova – announced that they voted unanimously to leave the Big East Conference, effective June 30, 2015.^[17] The "Catholic 7", by leaving, were looking for a more lucrative television deal than the one they would receive by remaining with the football schools.^[18] In March 2013, representatives of the Catholic 7 announced they would leave the conference effective June 30, 2013, retaining the Big East name, $10 million, and the right to hold the conference's basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden.^[6][19]

Following the announcement of the departure of the Catholic 7 universities, the remaining ten football-playing members started the process of selecting a new name for the conference and choosing a new site to hold its basketball tournament.^[20][21] Various names were considered, with the "America 12" conference reportedly one of the finalists until rejected by college presidents sensitive of adding a number to the end of the conference name.^[22] On April 3, 2013, the conference announced that it had chosen a new name: The American Athletic Conference.^[1] It also revealed that it prefers the nickname "The American"; it was thought "AAC" would cause too much confusion with the Atlantic Coast Conference, or ACC.^[23]

Louisville and Rutgers will only spend one season in the renamed conference. On July 1, 2014, Louisville will join the ACC^[24] and Rutgers will join the Big Ten Conference.^[25]

CommissionersEdit

Membership timelineEdit

Template:Font color, Template:Font color, Template:Font color, Other colors = Other affiliations

Member universitiesEdit

Full membersEdit

The conference currently has ten full member institutions and one associate in eight states, including Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas. In 2014, The American will lose its presence in Kentucky and New Jersey but will gain a presence in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. By 2015, the conference will include eleven universities in ten states; the geographic domain of the conference will stretch from Texas to Connecticut (west to east) and from Connecticut to Florida (north to south).

• Enrollment figures include both undergraduate and graduate students.
• ^† Denotes schools leaving the conference effective June 30, 2014.

Associate membersEdit

Source:^[29]

Associate MembersEdit

• Enrollment figures include both undergraduate and graduate students.

FootballEdit

Template:Rellink The conference began football during the 1991–92 season, and was a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series.^[31] The American teams play eight conference games a season. Conference opponents operate on a two-year cycle, as a home-and-home series.^[32] The conference does not have enough teams to form divisions, but will in 2015 when Navy joins the conference.^[33]

Like the conference itself, football experienced much transition through its history – in fact it was the main force behind such departures and expansion. In 2003, the BCS announced that it would adjust the automatic bids granted to its six founding conferences based on results from 2004–07. With the addition of Cincinnati, Louisville, and South Florida in 2005, the conference retained its BCS automatic-qualifying status. In 2007, South Florida rose to No. 2 in the BCS rankings, but finished No. 21 in the final poll. Cincinnati finished the 2009 regular season undefeated at 12–0, and ranked No. 3 in the final BCS standings barely missed playing for the BCS National Championship.

Conference ChampionsEdit

• Note: UCF clinched at least a share of the 2013 American Athletic Conference football championship on November 29, 2013. AP ranking shown.
• For football champions of the Big East Conference from 1979-2012, the precursor to The American, see this list.

RivalriesEdit

The American has many rivalries among its member schools, primarily in football. Some rivalries existed before the conference was established or began play in football. Recent conference realignment in 2005 and 2013 ended - or paused - many rivalries. Before their departure to other conferences, a number of former member schools held longtime rivalries within the conference.

Some of the rivalries between The American schools include:

Bowl gamesEdit

Future 2014-2019 Bowl gamesEdit

Notes on bowl game selection

• ^† The American's BCS representative is not tied directly to a specific BCS Bowl. It is selected to a bowl in the same manner as an at-large team. The BCS may select a second team to play in another BCS bowl game.
• ^†† The Liberty Bowl can select a team from The American if there is not an eligible SEC opponent available.
• For the 2014-19 bowl cycle, the American has announced tie ins to the following bowls: BBVA Compass Bowl, Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl, Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, Miami Beach Bowl, Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman, Boca Raton Bowl, Bahamas Bowl, and the R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl. In addition, the conference also holds secondary partnerships with the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, the AdvoCare V100 Bowl, and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. *If the American champion is the highest ranked from among the "group of five" conferences, it will also receive a bid to either the Cotton Bowl, the Chick-fil-A Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl.

FacilitiesEdit

• ^† Denotes schools leaving the conference effective June 30, 2014.
• ^†† Denotes schools joining the conference on July 1, 2014.
• ^††† Denotes schools joining the conference on July 1, 2015.

See alsoEdit

• List of NCAA conferences
• Big East Conference (2013–present)
• Big East Conference (1979–2013)

ReferencesEdit