Tulane Sees More Changes in American Athletic Conference
Change in conference membership is the norm these days in major college athletics. Tulane’s home, the American Athletic Conference, is no exception.
The good news is that this year it’s a tweak more than last year’s wholesale change.
The American is taking in just one new member this year, as the Army Black Knights leave independence behind to become the league’s 13th member for football.
This is Army’s second stint in a conference. The Black Knights were members of Conference USA from 1998-2004. Otherwise, the football program has been an independent.
The American is the child of the split of the Big East Conference in 2013, as the basketball-only schools retained the rights to the conference and the football schools moved into the American.
Tulane didn’t join the league until 2014, along with East Carolina and Tulsa. That came after two members opted to leave the league after the first year — Louisville (ACC) and Rutgers (Big Ten).
The Green Wave is familiar with Army, as both were in Conference USA. Tulane joined the league in 1996 after it was independent in football for nearly 30 years.
Before that, Tulane was part of the SEC (1932-65), the Southern Conference (1922-32) and the SIAA (1896-1922).
Only three original members of the American are still part of it 11 years later — Memphis, USF and Temple.
Tulane, along with ECU and Tulsa, are now the second-most tenured members of the conference.
Navy joined the league as an affiliate member for football in 2015, while Wichita State joined as a non-football member in 2017.
The rest of the league is entering its second season as a full member of the conference.
Conference realignment around Tulane and the American had a ripple effect on the league. After Oklahoma and Texas announced it would move to the SEC three years ago, the Big 12 announced it would take in four new schools, three of which were long-time members of the American — Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
The league would later lose SMU to the ACC, as the Mustangs join that league this year.
To reinforce the league, the American invited six schools that joined for all sports last season — Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA — all of which were in Conference USA.
It’s been a revolving door, and it’s not just the conference membership. The football team is getting used to a new football coach, Jon Sumrall, who took over this offseason after two seasons at Troy.
Willie Fritz, who led the program for eight years, took the job at Houston. In his last two seasons he led the Green Wave to 23 wins, a conference title and a Cotton Bowl victory.
MATTHEW POSTINS