The first American Athletic Conference Football Championship will be played Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, at noon ET and will be televised nationally on either ABC or ESPN.

The winner of the American Athletic Conference Football Championship will have the opportunity to participate in one of the College Football Playoff New Year’s Bowls if it is the highest-ranked team among the champions of Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.

Divisional Champions
The divisional champions will be the teams from each division with the highest winning percentage in all conference games – both divisional and non-divisional.

In the event of a two-team tie within a division, the head-to-head winner between the tied teams will be the championship game representative.

In the event of a multiple-team tie within a division, the following tiebreaker criteria will be used, in order:
  · Head-to-head record against the tied teams
  · Divisional winning percentage
  · Record against each team in the divisional standings, in descending order
  · Record against common non-divisional conference opponents
  · Overall winning percentage
  · Most recent College Football Playoff Selection Committee rankings (provided the highest-ranked team won its final game)
  · Average of selected computer rankings

If, at any point during the tiebreaker process, the criteria eliminates all but two teams, the two remaining teams would revert to the two-team tiebreaking procedure to determine the representative.

Championship Site
The site of the American Athletic Conference Football Championship will be the home venue of the divisional champion (as determined above) with the best record in conference games.

If the two divisional champions have the same conference record, then the regular-season head-to-head winner between the divisional champions would host the championship.

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 winning percentage would host the championship.

If that does not produce an advantage, then the team that was ranked higher in the most recent College Football Playoff Selection Committee rankings would be the host, provided that team won its final regular-season game. The next tiebreaker would be an average of selected computer rankings.