Article by Dan Tortora
The American Athletic Conference (AAC) will be implementing a new conference football schedule as they prepare to welcome six new institutions to the league.
After expanding to divisions in the 2015 season, back when having 12 teams and divisions allowed for a conference to host a championship game without needing a waiver, the AAC would eventually go back to a format without divisions when the UConn Huskies left the conference in 2020.
Under the new scheduling format, the AAC will continue to compete without divisions, with the top two teams record-wise playing for the AAC Championship each season, the top-seeded team remaining as the host of the game.
There will also continue to be eight conference games per season and four non-conference contests for all 14 AAC schools.
Instead of a 3-5-5 model like the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) who have 14 football members as well, where each school has three permanent opponents every season, the AAC chose to adopt rivalry games.
Those six match-ups that will happen every season from 2023 through 2026 are Navy vs. Temple, North Texas vs. SMU, UAB vs. Memphis, Rice vs. UTSA, Charlotte vs. East Carolina, and FAU vs. South Florida.
Outside of these rivalry match-ups, every AAC football member will face the rest of the conference at least twice within the four-year cycle of 2023 through 2026, meaning each school will face the other 13 member institutions once at home and once on the road minimum over the next four seasons.