PROVIDENCE, RI – The American Athletic Conference held its winter meeting of the league’s presidents and athletics directors on Wednesday, January 10 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Highlights of the meeting included discussions of the Conference’s future television, media and digital rights strategies, the continuation of its P6 narrative and messaging, upcoming proposed NCAA legislation, and future men’s basketball nonconference scheduling. The athletic directors also approved the expansion of the men’s soccer championship from four to six teams beginning in 2018 and the expansion of baseball umpiring crews from three to four members starting in 2019.
“Our meeting in Atlanta provided another opportunity for our presidents, athletics directors and conference staff to discuss substantive issues involving our conference and college sports generally,” said Commissioner Mike Aresco. “We were excited to meet in the wake of our enormous football regular season and bowl success to review the strategic direction of our league, our goals and the challenges we face. Our P6 narrative is stronger than ever and has resonated well with the public and the media, assisted by the tremendous success we enjoyed on the football field this fall, which included UCF’s undefeated season, No. 6 AP final ranking and impressive victory over Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Our men’s and women’s basketball and Olympic sports are strong and the addition of Wichita State, No. 5 in the latest
USA Today/Coaches poll, has been an exciting development in men’s basketball. We discussed our league’s future media rights initiatives and heard from Wasserman, our media consultant. Our conference reached new heights this year and is poised to experience even greater success in the future.”
The 2017 football season saw seven American teams achieve bowl eligibility and produced a 4-3 bowl record, including a 3-1 record versus other Power 6 conferences. UCF and Memphis finished 12
th and 20
th, respectively, in the final CFP rankings, marking the third straight year the conference had multiple teams earn a spot in the final poll. The Knights, Tigers and USF all ended the year ranked in the final Associated Press and Coaches polls, including a No. 6 ranking for UCF in the final AP poll, the best final ranking for any American team in its history.
In other business, SMU director of athletics Rick Hart was appointed to the Conference’s athletic director executive committee; UConn director of athletics David Benedict was selected as the liaison to the men’s basketball coaches’ committee and the student-athlete advisory committee; and UCF vice president and director of athletics Danny White was named to the league’s media rights advisory committee.
THE AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
The American Athletic Conference (The American), a member of the NCAA, was reconstituted in 2013. With the conference office in Providence, Rhode Island, The American is comprised of the following institutions: UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy (in football only), USF, SMU, Temple, Tulane and Tulsa. Wichita State (basketball and Olympic sports) joined the Conference on July 1, 2017. Under the leadership of Commissioner Mike Aresco, The American sponsors 21 championships – 10 for men and 11 for women; is a member of the College Football Playoff; began new television partnerships with ESPN and CBS Sports in 2014; and has a marketing partnership with IMG College. For more information, please visit
www.TheAmerican.org.