American Athletic Conference

The American Athletic Conference, also known as The American, is an American collegiate athletic conference with member institutions located in the northeastern, midwestern, and southern part of the United States. The conference is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, and led by Commissioner Michael Aresco. 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 American has member institutions that are spread throughout a wide portion of the United States. The majority of its members are located in urban metropolitan areas, or at least on the fringes thereof. 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. The prior league underwent substantial turmoil during the 2010–13 NCAA conference realignment period.

The American is currently one of the six automatic qualifying conferences 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. 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.

The Original Big East


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. 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. Villanova and Pittsburgh joined shortly thereafter under the leadership of the Big East's first commissioner, Dave Gavitt.

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. 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. 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.

Realignment and reorganization
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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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. On April 3, 2013, the conference announced that it had chosen a new name: The American Athletic Conference. 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.

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

Membership timeline
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Full members
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 members
Source:

Future members
Four universities have been invited to join the conference. East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa will join in 2014, and the Naval Academy (known athletically as "Navy") will join in 2015. Tulane and Tulsa were invited as full members. East Carolina was originally invited as a football-only member, but was subsequently invited as a full member. Navy will join as an associate member (football only).

Associate Members

 * Enrollment figures include both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Former Big East member universities
All former members of the conference left the conference before the name change in 2013.

Football members
* Virginia Tech was an associate member of the then-Big East from 1991–2000.

** West Virginia was an associate member of the then-Big East from 1991–1995.

Associate members
* Loyola moved its sports teams including women's lacrosse to the Patriot League in 2013. ** Rutgers and West Virginia joined the then-Big East as full members in 1995. *** Virginia Tech joined the then-Big East as a full member in 2000.-->

Sports
For 2013-14, the American Athletic Conference sponsors championship competition in ten men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports; Villanova is an associate member for rowing :

Under NCAA rules reflecting the large number of male scholarship participants in football and attempting to address gender equity concerns (see also Title IX), each member institution is required to provide more women's varsity sports than men's.

The old Big East Conference sponsored championship competition in eleven men's and thirteen women's NCAA sanctioned sports. The new conference will not sponsor men's or women's lacrosse or field hockey. For the 2013-2014 season, all teams in the American which sponsor these sports will compete in the Big East, but this could change for later years. The American's website indicates that it will sponsor men's swimming and diving despite having only four teams.

Men's sponsored sports by school

 * Pink highlight indicates schools departing after 2013-14. Grey highlight indicates schools joining in 2014.
 * Totals reflect membership changes; first number is with Louisville and Rutgers; second figure is with East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa replacing Louisville and Rutgers.
 * Navy will join The American as an associate member on July 1, 2015. The Midshipmen will play only football in the conference, bringing the total number of football playing institutions to 12 at that date.

Women's sponsored sports by school

 * * = Associate Villanova
 * Pink highlight indicates schools departing after 2013-14. Grey highlight indicates schools joining in 2014.
 * Totals reflect membership changes; first number is with Louisville and Rutgers; second figure is with East Carolina, Tulane, and Tulsa replacing Louisville and Rutgers.
 * † = Houston did not have a women's golf program before joining The American. UH will begin sponsoring the sport in 2013–14; two players will represent UH as individuals in that season, with a full team to be formed starting in 2014–15.

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

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.

Rivalries
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 games

 * 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.

Basketball
In June 2013, it was announced that the inaugural men's basketball tournament will take place at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. FedEx Forum had previously hosted eight Conference USA basketball tournaments.

Notes:


 * Italics denotes championships won before the school joined The American.
 * Boldface denotes championships won while in The American or its legal predecessor the Big East (1979-2013).
 * Women's national championship tournaments prior to 1982 were run by the AIAW.

Facilities

 * † 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.

Academics
One of the current member schools, Rutgers University, is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). One of the future member schools, Tulane University, is also an AAU member.

Additionally, member schools are also highly ranked nationally and globally by various groups, including U.S. News & World Report, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) and Times Higher Education World University Rankings (Times). As of 2012, one conference institution is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world, with Rutgers ranked 59th.

Endowments and rankings

 * † 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.
 * A Villanova is ranked in the "Regional Universities (North)" category by U.S. News & World Reports.
 * B The Naval Academy is ranked in the "National Liberal Arts Colleges" category by U.S. News & World Reports.
 * Endowment data provided by the National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute as of March 19, 2012.
 * Academic ranking data provided by U.S. News & World Reports from its "2012 National University Rankings."