11-team league forces juggling
Title game stays, but scheduling changes coming
NEWPORT, R.I. — As with all divorces, there is a small mess to clean up with the University of Connecticut’s decision to leave the American Athletic Conference.
The settlement to the league, which reportedly could be close to $15 million, is still being discussed. Talks between the two sides are “ongoing and amicable,” commissioner Mike Aresco said this week at the annual AAC Media Days.
During his opening remarks, Aresco said the AAC has no plans to add a school to replace UConn.
“We’re not targeting anyone,” Aresco said. He did not close the door on future expansion, adding that “down the road, if there is someone interested in us and they can enhance our brand, we would consider it.”
It was an unusual, if not uncomfortable, two days for UConn — which in June announced it would join the basketball-centric Big East — and the other 11 schools that gathered at
Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina.
On Monday night, league officials, coaches, athletic directors and players enjoyed a clambake while dining on 400 lobsters. On Tuesday, UConn players sat in the front few rows as Aresco addressed a post-UConn league that begins next year. With the AAC expressing no desire to keep UConn as a football-only
member, the Huskies program is in limbo and likely to play as an independent in 2020.
Once UConn departs, the AAC must address unbalanced divisions in an 11-team league. There is no consideration to eliminating a school to create a 10-team conference.
“If we decide to stay at 11, we really don’t like unbalanced divisions,” Aresco said.
Back in the spring, Aresco proposed scrapping the two-division format while still playing an
eight-game league slate (schools would continue to play four non-conference games). The two highestranked teams would meet in the championship game.
There was no support at the time, although that is expected to change with UConn leaving. If the AAC goes with 11 teams, a waiver to hold a conference championship game would be required from the NCAA.
“We still want to have a championship game, and that’s not negotiable”
Aresco said. “We need to get a waiver from the NCAA, and I’m confident we would be able to get one if we wanted one.”
One proposal on the table is for the AAC to adopt a football schedule similar to the Big Ten, which had 11 teams for 20 years after Penn State joined in the 1990s. AAC schools would play two permanent opponents each year and rotate the other six.
Aresco said he expects an “interesting debate” on what the permanent
matchups should be. He said Houston and SMU would be “a natural” because of ties going back to the Southwest Conference. As would Central Florida and South Florida.
“It’s going to be interesting, because there are a lot of combinations of permanent rivals,” Aresco said. “Some teams may not necessarily want to play a really powerful rival as a permanent (game).”
But what team could Houston draw in its other matchup? Tulane and
Tulsa make sense in terms of proximity, but neither is considered a big draw. UH and Memphis have developed a budding rivalry as the top two teams in the West the past few years.
In an informal Twitter poll, 60 percent of nearly 500 respondents Wednesday picked Memphis for a permanent opponent. Next was Tulane with 17 percent, with many in favor of a trip to Bourbon Street every other year.