UAB competes in one of the hardest recruiting markets in sports in Alabama, but their basketball program has lots of upside potential with Houston leaving the AAC. UTSA has been a staple in the C-USA for the last two seasons with two conference championships and 11 win seasons, but they have never won a bowl game. Yes these four teams are MUCH weaker than the three that left the conference, but it is a good sign that six have joined. Charlotte has now joined the FBS and moved conferences in an eight year span, and Florida Atlantic finds itself in its fourth new conference. Out of these six schools, four made a bowl game last season but only one of them won. The six new teams joining the AAC for next season in athletics are UTSA, UAB, Rice, North Texas, Charlotte, and FAU. The expectation remains among the remaining eight American schools that they will remain essentially whole in their television deal, which averages $7 million per school over the life of the deal.- Pete Thamel October 21, 2021 With the departure of Houston, Cincinnati, and UCF many thought the AAC would no longer be king of the Group of Five conferences until they added a whopping SIX new members to the conference. The American continues to rebound and reload on teams after losing some of its best members. BYU will be interesting to watch in the new Big 12, but I think they will compete in football and possibly baseball the best. BYU basketball competes in the West Coast Conference with teams like Saint Mary’s and Gonzaga– with the Cougars’ departure, the WCC will lose a lot of its strength as a conference. They have been independent in football since they left the Mountain West conference in 2010 and have never been in a Power 5 conference before. With the Big 12 already being the most competitive basketball conference, adding Houston will make the conference schedule even more brutal.īYU is an interesting school in an interesting situation. Houston basketball is constantly at the top of the country with two elite eight appearances and a Final Four appearance in recent years. Cincinnati most recently became the first Group of Five squad to make the College football playoff and UCF had an undefeated season and so called “National Championship” in 2019. Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston have been in the top three in the American Athletic Conference in all major sports for five seasons now. What does adding the new schools do for the conference? Besides adding two amazing venues in Orlando and Provo to the conference it also brings in more competition. These two schools also have the most rankings in the top 10 in every sport and the most national championships. Losing Oklahoma and Texas is a huge loss for the conference as they are the top two schools in revenue in the Big 12. Oklahoma and Texas will be leaving the conference as of July 1st, 2024. The conference is welcoming BYU, UCF, Cincinnati, and Houston starting July 1st, 2023.
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