American Athletic Conference
The American Conference (also known as "(The) American") is a big college sports conference in the United States. Its members play in NCAA Division I. In football, they play in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; known before 2006 as Division I-A), the higher of two levels of Division I football.
The American has its roots in the original Big East Conference. That conference was started in 1979 as a basketball-first league by a group of schools in the Eastern U.S. The Big East added football in 1991. That led to years of conflict between schools that played I-A/FBS football and those that did not. In July 2013, the Big East split into two conferences. The seven schools that did not play FBS football left to form a new Big East Conference. The FBS schools that did not go to other conferences stayed in the old conference structure. Along with several new members, they began operating as the American Athletic Conference.
The American kept the original Big East charter. That makes it the legal successor of the old Big East. However, both The American and the new Big East claim 1979 as their founding dates. Both also claim the pre-split history of the old Big East, at least in corporate terms. However, both leagues agreed that the current Big East would maintain the sporting history of the original conference in most sports. The only exceptions are football and women's rowing, the only two sports sponsored by The American but not the current Big East. In those two sports, neither offshoot league recognizes the history of the original Big East.
Of the 14 current full members (those that house most of their sports in the league), only Wichita State does not have a football team.
A major conference realignment was triggered in 2021 when Big 12 Conference mainstays Oklahoma and Texas announced they would move to the Southeastern Conference no later than 2025, with a 2024 entry date later confirmed. The American would be heavily affected. The Big 12 then raided The American, inviting Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF to join that conference, with their arrival date later set for 2023. In turn, The American raided Conference USA, inviting six members of that conference to move to The American in 2023—Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB, and UTSA. Later in the realignment cycle, SMU announced it would leave The American for the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. The American replaced SMU for football with Army, which joined as a football-only member at the same time that SMU left.
On July 21, 2025, the conference dropped the word "Athletic" from its name, becoming simply the American Conference.[1]
Members
[change | change source]- ↑ For South Florida, plus the Temple football program, dates are when they joined the original Big East.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Five of the six members that joined in 2023 (all but UTSA) were American Conference members in select sports in 2022–23:
- Charlotte and UAB were members in men's soccer.
- Florida Atlantic was a member in men's soccer and women's swimming & diving.
- North Texas and Rice were members in women's swimming & diving, although Rice then fielded swimmers only and no divers. (Rice reinstated women's diving in 2024–25 after an absence of over 30 years.)
- ↑ Temple's football team was kicked out of the old Big East after the 2004 season, but came back in 2012.
- ↑ Non-football member.
Associate members
[change | change source]As of the 2025–26 school year, The American has nine "associate members" that play one or two sports in the conference.
Former members
[change | change source]Two schools left The American after spending only the 2013–14 school year in the renamed conference. Before 2013, both had been members of the original Big East. A third school left The American in 2020 to rejoin most of its historic all-sports rivals in the current Big East. Three more schools left for the Big 12 in 2023, one of which stayed in The American for one season in women's lacrosse only. Another left for the ACC in 2024.
| School | Location | Founded | Type (affiliation) | Nickname | Joined | Left | Current conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Louisville | Louisville, Kentucky | 1798 | Public | Cardinals | 2005 | 2014 | ACC |
| Rutgers University | New Brunswick, New Jersey | 1766 | Public | Scarlet Knights | 1991 (football) 1995 (all sports) | 2014 | Big Ten |
| Southern Methodist University (SMU) | University Park, Texas[a] | 1911 | Private (Methodist) | Mustangs | 2013 | 2024 | ACC |
| University of Connecticut (UConn) | Storrs, Connecticut | 1881 | Public | Huskies | 1979[b] | 2020 | Big East |
| FBS independent (football) | |||||||
| University of Houston | Houston, Texas | 1927 | Public | Cougars | 2013 | 2023 | Big 12 |
| University of Central Florida (UCF) | Orlando, Florida[c] | 1963 | Public | Knights | 2013 | 2023 | Big 12 |
- ↑ The campus has a Dallas mailing address.
- ↑ UConn joined the original Big East at its formation in 1979, and remained in The American after the 2013 split.
- ↑ The UCF campus has an Orlando mailing address, but actually lies in unincorporated Orange County.
Former associate members
[change | change source]Five other schools were single-sport members, but are no longer in the conference. Three of these competed in women's rowing before leaving the conference, with one leaving after The American shut down its women's rowing league in 2024. Another women's rowing associate left in 2024, but is still in The American in another sport.
Two other schools were members for women's lacrosse before the Big 12 Conference started a women's lacrosse league in 2024–25. One of these latter two schools had been a full American Conference member before joining the Big 12, but kept women's lacrosse in The American for a single season.
Apart from these, five other schools were associate members for one year before becoming full conference members.
| School | Location | Founded | Type (affiliation) | Nickname | Joined | Left | Sport | Current conference in former American sport |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte) | Charlotte, North Carolina | 1946 | Public | 49ers | 2022 | 2023 | Men's soccer | American |
| University of Cincinnati | Cincinnati, Ohio | 1819 | Public | Bearcats | 2023 | 2024 | Women's lacrosse | Big 12 |
| University of Florida | Gainesville, Florida | 1853 | Public | Gators | 2018 | 2024 | Women's lacrosse | Big 12 |
| Florida Atlantic University | Boca Raton, Florida | 1961 | Public | Owls | 2022 | 2023 | Men's soccer | American |
| Women's swimming & diving | ||||||||
| University of North Texas | Denton, Texas | 1890 | Public | Mean Green | 2022 | 2023 | Women's swimming & diving | American |
| Old Dominion University | Norfolk, Virginia | 1930 | Public | Monarchs | 2018 | 2024 | Women's rowing | Big 12 |
| Rice University | Houston, Texas | 1912 | Private | Owls | 2022 | 2023 | Women's swimming[a] | American |
| California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State) | Sacramento, California | 1947 | Public | Hornets | 2014 | 2024 | Women's rowing | Independent |
| San Diego State University | San Diego, California | 1897 | Public | Aztecs | 2015 | 2021 | Women's rowing | N/A (dropped women's rowing) |
| University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) | Birmingham, Alabama | 1969 | Public | Blazers | 2022 | 2023 | Men's soccer | American |
| Villanova University | Villanova, Pennsylvania | 1842 | Private (Catholic) | Wildcats | 2013 | 2015 | Women's rowing | CAA |
- ↑ Before the 2024–25 season, Rice's women's aquatics program had swimmers, but no divers.
Sports
[change | change source]The American holds championships in 10 men's sports and 11 women's sports:
- Baseball (men only)
- Basketball (both)
- Cross country (both)
- Football (men only)
- Golf (both)
- Lacrosse (women only)
- Soccer (both)
- Softball (women only)
- Swimming and diving (both)
- Tennis (both)
- Track and field, indoor (both)
- Track and field, outdoor (both)
- Volleyball (women only)
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "American Conference Launches Modernized Brand Identity Ahead of Football Media Days" (Press release). American Conference. July 21, 2025. Retrieved July 21, 2025.
Other websites
[change | change source]