Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the Big 12 last month set off an ongoing realignment in conference football.
First, the Big 12 announced it would add BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, and the University of Central Florida (UCF) to replace the Longhorns and the Sooners. That left the American Athletic Conference scrambling for answers.
It looks like those answers have come.
In a report first published by Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, the American will look to add up to six new teams with a decision coming as soon as later this week. The possible new teams are Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Rice, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), the University of North Texas (UNT) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA).
Rice, UNT and UTSA, per the report, will send in their applications to join the conference this week.
Conference USA, where all six of these teams are from, sent a letter to the American early last week proposing a merger of the two conferences. However, AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco was uninterested. A week later, the American raided the conference that is cash strapped and facing significant television revenue issues.