The AAC recently announced its conference divisions for 2015. It looks like the Bearcats will play in the East Division, which is the tougher division by a mile. Here’s how the divisions look:
East Division
Cincinnati
UCF
UConn
East Carolina
USF
Temple
West Division
Houston
Memphis
Navy
SMU
Tulane
Tulsa
Under the planned division of teams, each team will play the other five teams within its division each year. Then, the other three games will rotate between three teams from the other division. This means that each team is guaranteed a home-and-home series with every other conference team within a four-year period.
More importantly, this division of teams will allow the conference to have a conference championship game. While that may not seem too critical at first blush, if some of the teams prove to be nationally competitive, it may allow the leader of the AAC (presumably, the Bearcats) to sneak into the playoff.
Or maybe UC will be invited to join the ACC or Big 12 before then. Here’s to dreaming…