AAC football strives to build on success despite uncertainty
The American Athletic Conference has dreams of someday being among the elite power conferences.
While those aspirations may never become reality, the ability to contend every week has been a source of pride for the AAC.
The AAC took a major hit when the Big Ten and Pac-12 opted to postpone football until the spring while the other three Power 5 conferences chose to either limit nonconference games or drop them altogether. Attractive out-of-conference matchups against the likes of Texas, Washington State, Nebraska, North Carolina and Purdue dissipated, forcing many AAC schools to pivot and fill vacancies on the schedule with less attractive options.
And the way these last-minute changes alter the view of the AAC in the eyes of the College Football Playoff selection committee is still unknown. The conference has built its reputation on nonconference wins as a benchmark to help earn the Group of 5 1/4 u2032s top spot in the past three New Year’s Six Access Bowl games.
