The American Athletic Conference consists of 13 prestigious institutions: the University of Central Florida, the University of Cincinnati, East Carolina University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Houston, the University of Memphis, the U.S. Naval Academy (in football only), the University of South Florida Southern Methodist University, Temple University, Tulane University, the University of Tulsa, and Wichita State University (in basketball and Olympic sports).
Under the leadership of commissioner Mike Aresco, the American Athletic Conference has an impressive list of accomplishments, both in the competitive arena and the classroom. The American has taken its place at the forefront of intercollegiate athletics, with a collection of national team and individual championships and football and men’s and women’s basketball postseason victories that place The American among the elite Division I FBS conferences.Â
The league has produced four NCAA championship teams – UConn men’s basketball in 2014 and UConn women’s basketball in 2014, 2015 and 2016 – in addition to three New Year’s Six bowl champions (UCF in 2013 and 2017; Houston in 2015), 11 NCAA individual championships, and a Rhodes Scholar. Additionally, American Athletic Conference teams have advanced to the College World Series, reached the semifinal and final rounds of the NIT, qualified for the match play round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship and registered top-10 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country and Outdoor Track and Field championships.
The American Athletic Conference was one of six finalists for the 2016 Sports Business Journal Sports League of the Year award, along with Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, the National Basketball Association and the PGA Tour.
The 2017 football season saw The American enjoy unprecedented success as UCF finished as the only undefeated team in the nation, and the first in the last four college football seasons, capping a 13-0 campaign with a win against Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. UCF ended the year as the No. 1-ranked team in the Colley Matrix and was ranked No. 6 in the final Associated Press poll, marking the best final ranking for a team from The American in the league’s brief history. UCF’s finish in the AP poll gave teams from The American three top-10 finishes in the last five end-of-the-year polls.Â
Additionally, seven teams from The American played in bowl games last season as the league went 3-1 against other Power 6 conferences in the postseason. UCF and Memphis finished No. 12 and No. 20, respectively, in the final College Football Playoff rankings, giving The American three straight seasons with multiple teams in the final ranking. UCF, Memphis and USF were all ranked in the final AP top-25 poll of the season. The American is one of only three conferences (along with the Big Ten and the Big 12) that has had at least three 10-win teams in each of the last two seasons.
The American has had a combined 22 teams play in bowl games in the last three seasons, highlighted by UCF’s win against Auburn last year and Houston’s win against Florida State in the 2015 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Additionally, Navy and Temple have both finished in the top 25 of either the CFP, Associated Press or USA Today polls as members of The American.
Individual teams in The American have enjoyed some of their best seasons in program history as members of the conference. UCF has finished in the national top 10 twice in five seasons as a conference member – in 2013 and 2017. Houston went 13-1 in the 2015 football season, setting a school record for wins, while Navy won a program-record 11 games in its first season in the conference, also in 2015. Memphis, which had not won 10 games in a season since 1938, has registered two 10-win seasons in the last four years (2015, 2017), while Temple enjoyed its first 10-win season in school history in 2015. USF has gone 21-4 in the last two seasons and has finished the year in the top 25 for the first two times in program history.Â
Beyond the gridiron, The American has sent a combined seven teams to the last two NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships. Since the conference’s reconstitution in 2013-14, teams from The American have registered top-10 national rankings in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, men’s soccer, men’s golf, and men’s track and field. Student-athletes from The American won five NCAA individual titles in track and field in 2017-18 as Houston’s Elijah Hall won the indoor 60- and 200-meter races, while the Cougars’ Cameron Burrell won the outdoor title in the 100-meter dash. Houston also repeated as the national champion in the 4x100-meter relay, while Memphis’ Luke Vaughn won NCAA gold in the discus throw.
Under The American’s banner, the UConn women’s basketball team won its NCAA-record ninth, 10th and 11th national championships and broke its own NCAA record with a 111-game winning streak that spanned three seasons. The American sent four baseball teams to the NCAA Championship in 2018. Houston’s men’s track and field team took third place at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships. Tulsa placed sixth at the 2016 NCAA Men’s Cross Country Championship, while USF finished the 2014-15 season at No. 8 in the final men’s golf national ranking.Â
American Athletic Conference student-athletes have distinguished themselves in all facets of intercollegiate athletics. Temple linebacker Tyler Matakevich won the Bednarik Award and the Nagurski Trophy as the nation’s top defensive player in 2015, while Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting. More recently, Houston’s Ed Oliver won the 2017 Outland Trophy as the nation’s best interior lineman, while UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton was eighth in the 2017 Heisman balloting. UConn basketball standout Breanna Stewart finished her career in 2016 as the most decorated player in college basketball history as she was chosen as the consensus national player of the year for the third time and became the first player be named four times as the Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four. Reynolds and Stewart were selected as the winners of the 2016 AAU James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athletes, marking only the second time in the 86-year history of the award that multiple winners were chosen.
American Athletic Conference alumni have made their mark in professional sports as well, beginning with the selection of UCF quarterback Blake Bortles by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the No. 3 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. The American has produced six student-athletes who have won Super Bowl titles, including three members of the 2017 champion Philadelphia Eagles. A number of American Athletic Conference athletes have been selected in the first round of the professional entry drafts in football, basketball, baseball and soccer. The American had a record 18 total selections in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The American Athletic Conference holds media rights partnerships with ESPN and CBS Sports, which provide the conference with outstanding national exposure on the two industry leaders in sports television. The football portion of the contract calls for nearly 90 percent of conference-controlled games on national broadcast or national cable platforms. The first three American Athletic Conference Football Championships were televised by ABC as part of Championship Saturday. The American has had a combined 41 regular-season football games with more than one million viewers in the last three seasons. The 2017 game between UCF and USF, cited by numerous outlets as the best game of the regular season, attracted 4.7 million viewers – a record for a game between two American Athletic Conference teams.
American Athletic Conference teams have access to the pinnacle of college football’s postseason structure. An American representative would be chosen for the College Football Playoff semifinals if it is among the top four teams in the CFP selection committee’s final ranking. Otherwise, the league would place its champion in a New Year’s Bowl if it is ranked higher than the champions of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.
Additionally, The American holds primary or secondary partnerships with 12 bowls for the current six-year cycle, ensuring multiple annual matchups against the nation’s top conferences and providing desirable postseason destinations to member institutions.
The American Athletic Conference serves its membership from a state-of-the-art office located in Providence, Rhode Island. The location of the conference headquarters – just steps from the city’s Amtrak station and 10 minutes from T.F. Green International Airport – gives the conference easy access to its member schools. The conference headquarters also serves as the home of the American Digital Network, which provides live coverage of all 21 conference championships.
