The American Athletic Conference Football Championship will be played for the first time in 2015.
 
 
It all comes down to one.
 
It has been several years in the making, but now, as the American Athletic Conference enters its third season – its first as a 12-team league, however – the conference will crown a true champion on the field in 2015.
 
The first American Athletic Conference Football Championship will take place Dec. 5 at the home venue of the divisional champion with the best record in conference games. The game will be televised on either ABC or ESPN and will be an integral part of college football’s Championship Saturday. The American’s biggest game will be played on the nation’s biggest stage.
 
Why a championship game, and why now?
 
The national debate about whether to stage a football championship is ongoing, perhaps nowhere more prevalent than in the Big 12. The first edition of the College Football Playoff format took place in 2014, featuring Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State – four schools that won their respective conferences’ championship games to reach the CFP. The 10-team Big 12, which did not have a conference championship game, did not have a team in the four-team field, though the league had the No. 5 (Baylor) and No. 6 (TCU) teams in the final CFP rankings.
 
Would a championship game have helped Baylor or TCU last year? If they played each other in the game, than the winner probably would have received enough of a boost to reach the CFP semifinals.
 
But here’s what what a lot of people miss. If Florida State had lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship (a game the Seminoles won, 37-35), the Big 12 surely would have had at least one team in the CFP semifinals. If Florida State lost and if Ohio State had not beat Wisconsin so convincingly in the Big Ten Championship, a case could be made that the Big 12 deserved two of the four semifinalists, as Baylor finished the regular season with a strong win against a top-10 Kansas State team and TCU hammered Iowa State in its 12th game.
 
If Florida State, which went 12-0 in the regular season, ended up losing to Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship, then how much did having a championship game really help the conference? Marshall saw its bid for a perfect season derailed when the Thundering Herd lost to Louisiana Tech in the Conference USA Championship, much to the delight of a two-loss Boise State team which – after winning the Mountain West title – was happy to accept a spot in the Fiesta Bowl.
 
The ability to potentially send a team on to the CFP or a New Year’s Bowl is a bonus of conference championship games, but it is hardly the sole reason for their existence. At a base level, it provides an opportunity to determine a league champion on the field. No polls, no tiebreakers. The best team in one division plays the best team of the other. The winner gets the trophy.
 
With only four teams chosen for the CFP, it’s not reasonable for a team to eye a national championship as its primary goal. That doesn’t stop some teams, coaches or fans from doing it, but there are 125 Football Bowl Subdivision teams and so many variables that can hinder even the strongest of them.
 
There are 10 FBS conferences and only four spots. By definition, at least six conference champions will be left out of the playoff each year. Since 2002, only seven schools have managed to win the national title. The other 121 have been shut out.
 
But nearly every team can go into the season thinking that, with good health and a break here and there, it could have a chance to win its conference. It’s a tangible and realistic goal – one that each team can control on its own. A team that wins every conference game it plays, no matter which conference it is, will have a chance to be the league champion .But a team that wins all 12 of its regular-season games could still be left out of the national title picture, simply because there are too many other teams with similar results, or too many teams with one loss against stronger competition.
 
The American Athletic Conference existed as a 10-team league in 2013, its debut season. UCF ran the table in conference play to capture the league title and the Knights went on to beat Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl to cap a 12-1 season and finish No. 10 in the nation. Not bad.
 
While having one outright league champion is the cleanest way to determine a conference’s best team – and the team that deserves the best consideration for high-level bowl games – regular-season play alone does not always produce that result.
 
In 2014, UCF, Cincinnati and Memphis all finished 7-1 in The American, forging a three-way tie atop the standings. Going back to the Big East football conference – the antecedent of The American – the last three seasons produced two four-way ties and one three-way tie for the title. Cincinnati, which won outright championships in 2008 and 2009, was the only school to finish alone in first place in the final six years of the league.
 
Of course now there could still be ties for the respective East Division and West Division titles in The American. But the conference tiebreaker policy should provide for a clean and logical way to break any potential deadlocks. If there is a two-team tie for the division title, then the head-to-head winner from the regular-season moves on to the championship game. Head-to-head results also prevail to break a multiple-team tie atop the division.
 
Once the division winners are determined, it’s East vs. West on the field for the championship trophy. If the two divisional champions have the same conference record, then the regular-season head-to-head winner would host the game. If the divisional champions have the same conference record and did not play in the regular season, then the team with the better overall regular-season record would host the championship.
 
The notion behind having the championship game played at a home site is to give the team that had the best regular-season performance the opportunity to win the league title on its own field, in front of its own fans. The energy in any of the 12 American Athletic Conference stadiums should be palpable for a league championship, which should resonate well with television viewers. Students will be able to attend en masse.
 
Planning for the American Athletic Conference Championship is already underway. Operations personnel at all 12 schools are part of regular conference calls with the league office and have been instructed to proceed, for now, as if the game will be played at their respective stadiums. As the regular season progresses, teams will obviously be eliminated from championship contention, and can thus end their part of the planning. By the time the division winners are crowned, though, the host institution should have virtually all logistics that come with staging the game (for example, tickets, parking, security) covered.
 
From there, it’s up to the teams. Whether you’re a fan of one of last year’s league championship teams or of a team that finished at the bottom of the standings, your team has a shot. Play better than your opponent in eight league games and you will play for a conference title – no poll-watching or outside drama necessary.
 
Mark your calendars now. Dec. 5, 2015. It all comes down to one.