AAC STRUGGLES FOR IDENTITY AS THE 2015 COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON APPROACHES

UCF HAS BECOME AN IMPORTANT ASSEST FOR THE AAC

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SOPHOMORE SLUMP OR SOMETHING ELSE?

The AAC  experienced a banner inaugural year in  both football and basketball.  UCF won the Tostitos Bowl manhandling a Baylor unit they were supposed to embarrassed by and UCONN won the men's NCAA Basketball Championship.  AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco understood the good fortunate of the league often remarking that he hoped the league had not peaked in its first year. Heading into the summer of 2014 it was easy an decision pick the AAC as the best G5  among the group and even speculate that the AAC might have the chops necessary to  make the jump to the power leagues.

This past year, however,    the young league experienced a let down in both football and men's basketball . AAC football , although solid , fell short of the Access Bowl (something it expected to land) and the 2 teams the league sent to the NCAA tournament came home early  disappointing both fans and conference officials.  

The results of this past year  indicate that the AAC still has a long way to go if they hope to cross the divide between power and non power distinction.  In fact at the moment the AAC is slightly behind the Mountain West  in terms of G5 hierarchy .  The results of this  past year raise some fundamental questions for the AAC and its leadership  going forward.

In the spirit  , I want to suggest that one of the essential  questions  facing the AAC in its current state is this:   Was the previous year in the AAC a  classic sophomore slump or do the results indicate a  more fundamental problem for the league?  A problem grounded in the reality that the league may simply never  reach  the level  Commissioner Mike Aresco and the School Presidents are hoping it will. 

AAC IS A CONFERENCE OF HAVE AND HAVE NOTS

On the surface the AAC has the most promise and potential of all of the G5. With Basketball schools  UCONN, TEMPLE, MEMPHIS, SMU and CINCINNATI and football schools  ECU, UCF, USF and CINCINNATI the league has teams in both sports that already compete or have the ability to compete  at Power 5 levels. No other G5 group has the type of fire power at the top of the  that the AAC does.( MWC of course has Boise State, but the quality of the league drops quickly after the Broncos)

The AAC however,  has enough teams in the league to  remind themeselve that they are still very much a non power group. So while the AAC is very good at the top  in  both football and basketball   the middle and lower half of the field is as bad as any among the  G5.

Herein lies one of the major problems for the AAC. It is essentially a Power conference at the top and a non power group at the bottom. It is a group of schools with a split personality. One of these  personalties is a well dressed professional  sporting an upward trajectory while the other personality struggles to find a vision and long term plan. The AAC is divided between the very good at the top, and the not so good at the bottom. All of this, among other issues(including the fact that the top schools want to be in P5 leagues) leads to an identity problem for the league. 

DEFINING THE AAC

There is little question that Mike Aresco took what he believed to be the best schools from Conference USA and the Mountain West( the Mountain West teams have since returned to MWC ) when forming his new league. It is also hard to question that UCF, ECU, HOUSTON, MEMPHIS and SMU(basketball) were great choices for the league. Combine these schools with UCONN, CINCY and USF and you have a very competitive nucleus. 

As I stated earlier in the blog entry however, the question remains if  these schools can move beyond the average year they had last year and become the league that Commish Aresco and its School Presidents want it to be. The league is of course in its infancy, and because of this ( among other issues), the AAC is suffering from an identity crisis. What  for example,  does  the AAC brand mean in the sports world? What do the schools in the AAC mean to each other? What rivalries  will eventually become worth watching on tv?

The AAC has more pressure at the moment to succeed than any other G5  largely because of it's excellent tv deal with ESPN ( a contract that ends in 2020)and because it is perceived by many to be the top G5 in the bunch.   In essence the next 3-5 years are essentially audition years to convince  ESPN  that the AAC  is worth the exposure the powerful network has given them with their current tv deal( AAC-ESPN contract linkAAC TV CONTRACT)

FINALLY

The AAC  emerged out of the ashes of the old Big East. It will have to prove that it can thrive and survive in a way the Big East was unable to do. With a savvy Commissioner  in Mike Aresco and a collection of schools that sit at the top of the G5 food chain  has much to be excited about going forward.

The AAC however, will have to prove that it is more than just a collection of good schools in name only. The league will have to prove that last year's slump was an anomaly , not the norm. The league is under pressure to show its tv partner ESPN, that it is worth the exposure of its current contract. 

In order to solidify its place as the G5 gold standard and not simply wish it were so, the league will have to have  outstanding football and basketball seasons this year and win the Access Bowl on a regular basis. The  AAC also needs a cohesive identity to bind the conference schools together.

The AAC has tremendous potential on paper, it will now have to prove that it is also a group of schools that can perform and win the games that it needs to win. The AAC will have  to decide if it wants to be a  paper tiger  or a league of Champions. At this point it is unclear which of these options the conference will embrace. Stay tuned.