![]() It still has the largest collection of athletic budgets in the Group of 5, but its four highest budgets will have left the league in the span of a few years.ĭespite the future departures, the remaining AAC may still be the strongest G5 football conference. The conference still stretches from Philadelphia to Tampa to Dallas. There are eight football-playing teams, and three of those are small private schools ( SMU, Tulane, Tulsa). The remaining AAC is a bit of a mishmash. The AAC will look for two to four teams in expansion. As of now, the three departing schools can’t join the Big 12 until 2024, but that’s expected to be negotiable, allowing for a 2023 change. Aresco’s best defense was to play offense, but it wasn’t enough. ![]() ![]() But it became clear the remaining Big 12 teams would stay together and AAC schools would be targeted. If the Big 12 fell apart, the AAC was primed to benefit in a big way. When the Texas and Oklahoma news first broke, the American presented a proactive front, thinking it could pull in some Big 12 leftovers. “Our conference was targeted for exceeding expectations in a system that wasn’t designed to accommodate our success,” he said. What’s next for the American?Ĭommissioner Mike Aresco was often mocked for pushing the “Power 6” moniker, but in the end, a line from his statement on the Cincinnati/Houston/UCF departures was particularly true. Will that same pattern happen in the Group of 5 this time? Is everyone lining up to join the American? Could there be a redrawing of the maps to better fit geography? And could the Big 12 expand again and take more?Īfter conversations with more than a dozen industry sources, here are the questions and scenarios around Group of 5 conference realignment.
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