Summer Kickoff Central
When the Big East - the precursor to the American Athletic Conference - announced that it was pursuing expansion in its football ranks, the league had no shortage of suitors. Some were obvious, evidenced by the current makeup of The American, and some were schools that you might not have considered.
The figurative carrot that the Big East could offer was an automatic bid to the Bowl Championship Series - a guaranteed place for its champion in college football’s elite bowls.
It seemed that every year, debate would sprout as to whether the Big East actually deserved its automatic bid. Never mind that the Big East was a founding member of the BCS, was instrumental in its formation and consistently produced teams (note the plural) that were capable of winning on the sport’s biggest stages if they won the conference championship. The league, without fail, elevated each of its members to unprecedented heights in college football.
Miami won a pair of national championships under the Big East banner. After the Hurricanes left the conference, West Virginia stepped up with BCS wins against Georgia, Oklahoma and Clemson. Two of those wins weren’t close. Cincinnati, which had never been mentioned in the context of the national title picture before joining the Big East, nearly reached the BCS National Championship in 2009 and played in the Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl in back-to-back years.
Louisville is the most recent flag-bearer. The Cardinals had not played in a BCS game prior to joining the Big East, but the Cardinals have since claimed wins in the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.
Even though some of the teams have changed - and even the name of the league has changed - there should be no question that the first American Athletic Conference champion will have earned its spot in the BCS. The league has earned the benefit of the doubt by now.
It will all be a moot point after this year, however. This is the final year of the Bowl Championship Series as the sport moves to the College Football Playoff beginning in 2014. The new system will pair the nation’s top four teams in a three-game tournament. The semifinals will be played either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and the National Championship will take place about a week later each year.
The sites of the semifinal games will rotate among the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl and the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. When those bowls are not hosting semifinal games, they will host their traditional contracted conferences (the Big Ten and the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl, for example).
The American will still have access to those premier games. If The American champion is among the top four, as determined by a yet-to-be-named selection committee, then it will be in the national semifinals.
If the American Athletic Conference champion is not among the top four nationally, it would still play in one of those New Year’s bowls if it is the highest-ranked champion among the Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. The feeling in league headquarters is that, more often than not, that spot will go to The American.
For the teams in the conference, then, it all comes down to one thing - winning. An American Athletic Conference team that wins the league title and takes care of business in nonconference games, will be positioned for a spot on college football’s largest stages. There’s no question it will deserve it.