Ever since the extinction of the Big East, there has been a label for the well-known conferences as “Power 5”. From 2011-2014, there were major realignments with Non-Power 5’s moving into Power 5.
Since then however, there is a case to be made that their could be an expansion. Not of a conference, but adding a new conference to the power ranks. A conference that has had a relatively solid top of the conference and made headlines.
That conference would be the American Athletic Conference. Now the chances of this ever happening is very slim. Even with that being said, it’s not crazy to think about adding them to the fray.
Academics is pretty solid
Outside of competing, the main argument against the AAC is academics. However, The American actually has some really good academic schools.
Navy is a very prestigious service academy and is ranked in the Top 100 nationally. SMU is a very good private school that is just outside the Top 100. Other schools like Tulane, UConn, and Tulsa are above average.
The American does have 2 lacking schools as East Carolina and Memphis are the worst. Every conference has those kind of schools though. The Big 12 has two schools outside the Top 400 in terms of academics (Texas Tech & West Virginia).
Louisville can’t crack the top 500 and 2 Pac 12 schools are outside the top 300. The AAC would be the worst out of the Power 5’s, but it’s not by much.
Top teams keep them relevant
Over the past 4 years, the top team has made headlines. It began with George O’Leary’s fantastic run in 2013 with UCF. They went 12-1 and defeated Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.
Tom Herman would begin a fantastic run in 2015. Houston would go 12-1 and upset Florida State in the Peach Bowl.
Of course, the insane UCF run over the past 3 years has been nothing but impressive. I do not like Brett McMurphy, but the updates he gives shows how dominant they are
UCF has scored at least 30 points in the last 30 games. Even though they lost this week, they’ll stay relevant for quite some time.
Conference as a whole has been P5 worthy this year
To be very clear, Houston is a good football team (with D’Eriq King and Keith Corbin). The fact they are 1-3 shows their schedule and how good Tulane is.
The American East is a little weak with USF having an uninspiring start to the season. However, the West is stacked. SMU is coming off their biggest win in years against TCU.
Going to Amon G. Carter is not easy and SMU controlled the game for most of the 2nd half.
Memphis is always a good program and has a SEC win already in 2019 (Ole Miss).
Tulane came off a crazy game where the QB only had 7 completions and still put up 38 points. The Green Wave received votes in the Top 25 for the first time in school history.
Navy is a yearly 8-9 win team and Tulsa has been impressive at times.
The argument against that would probably be “Well, that’s just this year and we’re only 4 weeks into the season”. That is fair to make, but this isn’t a fluke start.
Previous years shows some teams are capable of Power 5 wins
Record against P5 teams since 2013
| UCF | 8-8 |
| Houston | 8-5 |
| Memphis | 6-8 |
| Tulsa | 0-8 |
| Tulane | 0-9 |
| USF | 7-11 |
| Temple | 4-7 |
| East Carolina | 7-10 |
| UConn | 1-12 |
| Navy | 2-3 |
| Cincinnati | 7-7 |
| SMU | 1-14 |
Only 3 teams have .500 or better records. However, a lot of the wins from the conference has come in recent years.
The fact USF started losing their first 7 shows the direction of the program right now.
You can look at SMU being the clear weak link. However, they have had to play programs like Texas A&M, TCU, and Baylor just about annually. The Baylor matchups were when the Bears were in their prime.
UConn is the program that doesn’t deserve to be in the AAC from a football standpoint. They’ll be moving out in 2020, which sets up a possibility at a new team entering.
Tulsa is another one of the winless programs. The Golden Hurricane’s Power 5’s has consisted of Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Texas. It’s fair to say they shouldn’t win any of those.
The direction of the American is clearly going up. With UConn departing, this gives the conference the chance to get a good program. Who it will be? Only time will tell.
Image Credit: https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/smu-mustangs/2019/09/05/smu-prediction-will-mustangs-redeem-themselves-for-the-embarrassment-of-last-year-s-loss-to-unt/
