When a team leaves a conference, it’s never a completely clean break.
Part of joining a conference is about being tied to these other member institutions. So, leaving it isn’t just something you can do at a moment’s notice. Instead, different conferences will have different procedures for leaving the conference, oftentimes involving how much notice you need to offer the conference and a sizeable buyout to be paid to the conference.
Now, three AAC teams are leaving, but you’ve heard about that before. This means that three athletic departments are expected to be following the standard protocol.