American Athletic Conference
| American Athletic Conference | |
|---|---|
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| Established | May 31, 1979 |
| Association | NCAA |
| Division | Division I FBS |
| Members | 15 (11 Full, 4 Associate) |
| Sports fielded | 21 (men's: 10; women's: 11) |
| Region |
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| Former names | Big East (1979–2013) |
| Headquarters | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Commissioner | Michael Aresco (since 2012) |
| Website | www |
| Locations | |
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The American Athletic Conference (also known as The American and sometimes abbreviated AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities and four associate member universities that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, with its football teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, Western, and Southern regions of the United States.
The American was considered one of the six collegiate power conferences of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) era. With the advent of the College Football Playoff in 2014, The American became a "Group of Five" conference, which shares one automatic spot in the New Year's Six bowl games.
The league is the product of substantial turmoil in the original Big East Conference during the 2010–14 conference realignment period. It is one of two conferences to emerge from the all-sports Big East in 2013. While the other successor, which does not sponsor football, purchased the Big East Conference name, The American inherited the old Big East's structure and is that conference's legal successor. However, both conferences claim 1979 as their founding date, and the same history up to 2013. The American is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, and led by Commissioner Michael Aresco.
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