When the American Athletic Conference became a Division I football conference in 2013, it seemed to be a punchline. With a combination of a handful of former Big East teams along with a hodgepodge of schools ranging from Rutgers in the northeast to South Florida in the south to SMU all the way in Dallas, it seemed that several non-Power 5 schools decided to make a conglomerate.
However, the AAC’s odd geographical combination of teams has led to one of the most compelling conferences to follow and one of the best in the country, due to a very simple fact: The AAC wins.