C-USA will lose six to the AAC

Major college football is settling into a strange period with lame duck memberships and frayed allegiances that could last another season or even two as conferences sort out the latest shifts and turns of realignment.

The American Athletic Conference became the latest to act in the trickle-down effect caused from Oklahoma and Texas announcing this past summer that they will move to the Southeastern Conference by 2025.

The AAC, in an expected move previously reported by The Associated Press, announced Thursday that it will add six schools — Charlotte, Florida Atlantic University, North Texas, Rice, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Texas at San Antonio — to replace three schools — Cincinnati, Houston and the University of Central Florida — that are eventually leaving for the Big 12 Conference.

“We’re not certain when they’re going to come in yet,” AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said. “That’s still to be decided.”

It’s complicated because the conference doesn’t realistically have room for the newcomers until the outgoing schools have left.

Those within the AAC believe 2023 is a realistic target for the transition to a 14-team league after swiping six schools from Conference USA, but it all starts with Oklahoma and Texas. The Sooners and Longhorns are contractually obligated to the Big 12 until July 2025, and breaking the contract would cost Oklahoma and Texas tens of millions of dollars in exit fees paid to the Big 12. However, it is also understood that everybody involved would benefit from not stringing out this broken relationship for three more seasons.

The Big 12, after all, already has replacements lined up. The conference in September announced that Brigham Young University and the three aforementioned AAC powers would be joining eventually.