FAMILIAR NEMESIS

Need a football primer on Tigers’ new conference home? Start with Louisville and its Heisman-caliber quarterback

Need a football primer on Tigers’ new conference home? Start with Louisville and its Heisman-caliber quarterback.

College football media days, those annual summer conventions placing coaches, their top players and reporters in a hotel ballroom for preseason interviews, kick off in the next few weeks.

The Southeastern Conference’s gathering in Hoover, Ala., begins July 16. Conference USA — where the University of Memphis resided the past 17 seasons — will hold its meeting July 24 in Dallas. And the American Athletic Conference, the U of M’s new home, conducts its media day July 29-30 in Newport, R.I.

With the U of M joining a new conference, the sixth league in the program’s 101year history, it appears a primer on the American (formerly the Big East) is necessary for those who have spent nearly the past two decades familiarizing themselves with the strengths (Southern Miss, Tulsa) and weaknesses (UAB, Tulane) of C-USA.

To get started, here are a few key nuggets/reminders on the American (and remember, it’s the American, not the AAC).

There will be 10 teams: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU, Temple, UCF and USF.

Houston, SMU and UCF join the league, along with the U of M, from C-USA. Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten) depart after this season, making way for East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa — all from CUSA. Navy makes it a 12-team football league in 2015.

Louisville, which should enter the preseason polls ranked in the Top 10, is the team to beat.

Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who will make most early Heisman Trophy lists, will be the league’s . top player.

And first-year Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville, familiar to Mid-South football

fans for his work at Ole Miss and Auburn, will generate the greatest buzz as he tries to top Louisville for the league title with a talented group left by Butch Jones when he took the Tennessee job.

“Obviously, Louisville had an incredible season last year,” said secondyear Memphis coach Justin Fuente. “They are a benchmark for where we want to take this program. Cincinnati has had success as well. We’re looking forward to those challenges.”

With that background, here’s a premedia- day look at the football teams competing this fall for the American title, one that will earn the champion a Bowl Championship Series postseason berth.

In predicted order of finish:

ROGELIO V. SOLIS/ASSOCIATED PRESS Louisville has the 10-team American Athletic Conference’s top player in quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and the Cardinals are widely expected to be the league’s top team after an 11-2 season in 2012 that included a 10-point Sugar Bowl win over Florida.