AAC rebrands as American Conference in move designed to fuel growth in changing college landscape
The 15-team football conference also on Monday unveiled a new slogan — 'Built To Rise' — and introduced Soar the Eagle as a new mascot. Both will be featured in promotions and public service announcements that air during games involving its teams.
By changing names, the conference will get rid of the 'AAC' nickname that often got confused with the Power Four's ACC — Atlantic Coast Conference. It wants to be known as the 'American Conference,' or the 'American.'
American's commissioner, Tim Pernetti, has been aggressive about positioning the conference in the name, image and likeness era, announcing earlier this year that all members except Army and Navy would be required to revenue share at least $10 million over the next three seasons; it was the first league to set such a minimum standard.
Under the new NIL rules, schools are allowed to share up to $20.5 million in revenue in the 2025-26 season.
'This modernization is rooted in who we are and where we're headed,' Pernetti said. 'It prioritizes clarity, momentum, and the competitive advantage driving every part of our conference forward.'
These are fraught days for the Group of Five conferences, which includes the American, and whose teams have been constant targets in an era of realignment.
Since 2023, the American has lost Cincinnati, UCF and SMU but has added seven teams: Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UT-San Antonio and Army (for football). It now has 15 teams. Army and Tulane stayed on the fringe of the race for a spot in the College Football Playoff race last season.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
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Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Steven Barnett is on the management and editorial boards of the British Journalism Review. He is a member of the British Broadcasting Challenge which campaigns for Public Service Broadcasting. He is on the Advisory Board of the Charitable Journalism Project which campaigns for public interest journalism and on the board of Hacked Off which campaigns for a free and accountable press.
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