The American Athletic Conference, also known as “The American” or the AAC for short, owns a number of compelling subplots this season.
Navy joins the league and will force opponents to defend the triple option. Memphis, under Justin Fuente, rose from the ashes last season but also embarrassed itself in the so-called “Miami Beach Brawl” against BYU. The Tigers are an intriguing team this season for all sorts of reasons — on the field, off the field, reputation, personality, mindset, and more.
Temple is a highly fascinating team. So is Houston, with Tom Herman coming from Ohio State to see if he can do what Kevin Sumlin almost did: Lead UH back to a prestigious New Year’s Day game.
The American also debuts its conference championship game this year. That’s a good move, given that the league now has 12 teams (and exists in a sport which places more emphasis on a conference title game than ever before, as shown by the Big 12 last year).
What’s unfortunate for the AAC is that the ongoing attempt to deregulate conference championship games — such that conferences won’t be required to have a minimum of 12 teams in order to stage such an event — didn’t run its course before the league’s existence began in 2013. Had that momement taken flight such that the AAC could have created a conference title game two years ago, The American certainly would have done so. The trajectory of the conference title chase would have been different, especially since all teams did not play each other in either 2013 or 2014.
Yet, for all of these and other intrigues in the AAC, the subplot which rises to the top of the list — at least for many observers if not most — is the fact that for the first time in three seasons, The American will bear witness to a football meeting between the Cincinnati Bearcats and UCF Knights. It’s long past time for these teams to meet, especially in light of the way the conference was structured in 2013.
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What was so bad about 2013 in The American? The league had just 10 teams. The Big 12 doesn’t mess around with 10 teams; it puts in place a nine-game schedule so every team plays each other. The American, in 2013, used an eight-game schedule, making sure one team eluded the conference schedule for each school.
Guess which schools did not play each other in the eight-game AAC schedule from 2013? Yup — Cincinnati and UCF. That left a pretty sour taste in the mouths of AAC fans and bloggers. Yet, as bad as that was, it could have been chalked up to a one-year quirk in a schedule that was going to change, since The American moved from 10 teams to 11 in 2014, with Louisville exiting but Tulane and Tulsa joining.
In fact, the one reason an eight-game schedule made sense in 2013 was that The American knew eight-game schedules were going to progressively make more sense — not less — over time, with moves to 11 and then (this season) 12 teams. The AAC could say that it wanted schools to get used to the idea of not playing every other school every season. Rotations would be part of the schedule.
Again, the league should have used nine games in 2013, but if you were going to stick with eight, that was the argument to make.
Yet, if Cincinnati and UCF were kept away from each other by the 2013 schedule, the AAC had to make darn sure that the Bearcats and Knights met in 2014.
Only they didn’t.
Tommy Tuberville and George O’Leary. A school that made two BCS bowls just a few years ago, versus a school that made a BCS bowl two years ago. A program from the football-mad and talent-rich state of Ohio versus a team from the football-mad and talent-rich state of Florida.
Cincinnati and UCF are two of the most prominent football members of the AAC, and yet they’ve been segregated by schedule in each of the league’s first two seasons. One season? Fine — aberration or accident, it happens. Two seasons? Completely unacceptable.
Now, though, at long last, these teams will play.
No murky tiebreakers with Memphis at the top of the AAC standings (2014). No more “what-ifs” about UCF’s place in the conference pecking order, based on unanswered questions about how the Knights would have fared against Cincinnati (2013).
This season, clarity comes to the AAC — not because every school plays each other (that won’t happen), but because two schools that should face each other will get a chance to do just that.
American progress has been late in arriving, but in this year’s football schedule, American evolution is finally here.
Better late than never.
