The American Athletic Conference officially moved into its new headquarters in the Dallas metroplex on Wednesday morning, as announced in a press release. The office building, that it will share with the College Football Playoff, is located at The Summit at Las Colinas in Irving.
The move from Rhode Island, where the AAC previously called home since the inception of the league in 2013, coincides with the departure of UConn on Wednesday. The Huskies, who were founding members of the AAC, left for the Big East at the end of June. Mike Aresco, the commissioner of the conference, said the move to Dallas was meant to make the headquarters “geographically closer” to most of its member institutions.
“We are excited to begin serving our membership from our state-of-the-art office in Texas.” Aresco said in a press release. “… We look forward to joining our colleagues from SMU, and those from other conferences, the College Football Playoff, the National Football Foundation, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl and Dickies Arena, among other organizations.”
SMU will be the most centrally located school to the new headquarters out of any AAC university. The Summit, however, will also be minutes away from Dickies Arena, where the men’s and women’s basketball championships are played.
The league currently has a three-year agreement to play the men’s basketball conference tournament in Fort Worth. Last month, Dickies Arena was also announced to be the site for the women’s tournament in 2021.
“We chose The Summit because it is an attractive and well-managed building in a centralized location with easy access to the nearby airports, and to the desirable residential areas, restaurants and many cultural attractions in the region. We look forward to hosting the visiting membership,” Aresco said.
The league stated in the press release that The Summit will be equipped to also serve as the home of the American Digital Network and work in conjunction with ESPN broadcasts. It will be the command center for the league for all college football games.
“The command center will allow for real-time monitoring and interaction with officials at conference football games,” the conference said in a press release.
The AAC did say it intended to staff the new office space in July. It indicated it would follow local and state guidelines. It comes at a time when Dallas County saw 601 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, including 20 deaths.
This entire move has been effected by the coronavirus. The original schedule was for the AAC to move into Dallas in May. The timeline was then pushed back.
