AAC Heading West

While the Atlantic Coast Conference has grabbed the headlines with its on-going flirtation with Stanford, California and SMU, the American Athletic Conference

While the Atlantic Coast Conference has grabbed the headlines with its on-going flirtation with  Stanford, California and SMU, the American Athletic Conference has been quietly and steadily also looking to expand to the West Coast.

According to sources familiar with the process, the AAC has set up a zoon call this week with Oregon State and Washington State, the other two Pac-12 schools left homeless by the Big 12's poaching of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State

"They will make make campus visits next week,'' said the source indicating that there was less a sense of urgency to completing the process than in the ACC. 

AAC commissioner Mike Aresco was returning from Ireland, where he watched one of his team's Nsavy, open its season with a 42-3 loss to Notre Dame on Saturday

Aresco is expected back in the AAC offices in Texas for Wednesdays meeting among the conference commissioners to finalize plans for next season's tart of a 12  team playoff format.

The AAC has had its own revision this year, losing UCF, Cincinnati and Houston to the Big 12, but adding Charlotte, FAU, North Texas,  Rice, UAB and UTSA  in an expanded 14 school conference.

If SMU defects, as expected, the AAC, with the addition of Oregon State and Washington State would be at 15 teams, which could leave some wriggle room for an additional school.

For now, the focus is on Washington State and Oregon State, which is also being pursued by the Mountain West Conference.

The addition of Oregon State and Washington State would give the AAC a footprint, ranging from Florida to Washington.

The AAC also has made it clear that if the talks with Stanford and Cal's talks with the ACC broke down, it would be more than willing to include those schools in the expansion plans.

Another move which could gain momentum, is in the Big 12,  which is expected to make strong overtures to Clemson and Florida State, the two ACC schools who have been most visible in their unhappiness.

***

One of the expected moves by the commissioners in their meeting on Wednesday will be to reduce the guaranteed conference champions slots in the 12 team playoff from 5 to four among the Power 5 conferences, while leaving another slot open for the highest ranked Group of 5 conferences.

That would leave 7 at-large slots for the SEC and Big Ten to fill with multiple bids.