The American Athletic Conference is working tirelessly to establish itself as the best Group of Five conference in the country, but power is being consolidated to fewer and fewer stakeholders. Still, the expansion of the College Football Playoff has many Group of Five teams more hopeful than ever. How has conference realignment and the newer postseason format affected the AAC’s bowl tie-ins?
What Bowls Are Tied In With the AAC?
The AAC is contractually tied with the following bowls:
- Fenway Bowl vs. ACC
- Military Bowl vs. ACC
- Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl OR Hawaii Bowl
Additionally, the AAC “has the opportunity” to put teams in the following bowls:
- Birmingham Bowl (vs. SEC)
- Boca Raton Bowl (vs. G5)
- Cure Bowl (vs. G5)
- Frisco Bowl (vs. G5)
- New Mexico Bowl (vs. Mountain West)
- Myrtle Beach Bowl (vs. G5)
- SERVPRO First Responder Bowl (vs. ACC or Big 12)
- Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (vs. ACC or SEC)
It’s highly unlikely the AAC gets a team in each of these bowls, but there is theoretically no hard cap on the number of teams the conference can put in these overflow bowls, assuming the teams are bowl-eligible.
Bowl Selection Process
Not much has changed for the Group of Five bowl selection process from previous years, with one notable exception.
Essentially, the Fenway, Military, and Armed Forces or Hawai’i bowls will select first. Since the AAC has two of the three service academies (and could potentially add Air Force in the near future), it’s likely the Armed Forces Bowl will choose Army or Navy. Otherwise, the Hawai’i Bowl will likely take its pick, though neither bowl selected any AAC teams in 2023.
Beyond that, Group of Five bowl selection is essentially a free for all. Bowls (and ESPN) want intriguing matchups, storylines, and favorable geography (to maximize ticket sales).
Every bowl-eligible AAC team will be thrown in a pool with the rest of the Group of Five, and bowls will duke it out for the matchups they desire. However, there’s no telling how many bowls AAC teams will attend or which bowls from the list those will be.
Due to the recent realignment, it’s possible that affiliations could shift before the end of the regular season.
College Football Playoff and the AAC
But first, the College Football Playoff has to be sorted out. In the past, this typically hasn’t meant much to the Group of Five, but this year, the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion will automatically make the College Football Playoff, likely as a 12-seed.
This is important to the AAC because Memphis is the favorite to make the College Football Playoff on College Football Network’s strength of schedule projections.
If the Tigers (or another Group of Five team) makes the CFP, that team will follow that postseason path rather than play in a traditional bowl game.
MORE: Simulate the College Football Season With CFN’s College Football Playoff Predictor
The former New Year’s Six bowls will rotate as quarterfinal and semifinal games over the life of the 12-team playoff. While those bowls may still follow loose affiliations, there are no rules about which teams will play in which bowls.
Teams in the College Football Playoff will follow a standard 12-team playoff system, with the first-round games (between teams ranked 5-12) being played at the home stadium of the higher seed and then the quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship game being played at neutral sites.
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