But no one wanted to go to/ stay in the American. That's kind of the point.
The American just happened in a desperate attempt to salvage Big East football
However its biggest problem is it was a vastly under compensated conference , with the disparity between P5 and AAC doomed it to be a transient league at best .
We had lost , BCU , Miami , Va Tech before we ever played a league game , back filled as best we could even in the Big East days as a then BCS . Then Cuse , Pitt , WVA left and the fight to salvage a sport was on .
The first AAC year 2013 - Louisville , Rutgers we’re still in the league
TCU was suppose to join but A&M left the B12 and they were gone never playing a game , Boise and SDSU were also in and out .
The League was in order of finish UCF
Louisville , Cincinnati Houston , SMU, Rutgers , UConn, USF. Memphis and Temple . Perhaps a prediction of the future . The Top 6 are all in P5 conferences
Now if we could have stayed right there with the C7 still in .that’s not a bad all sport conference . Still one of the best BB leagues in the country . Perhaps even better than the current Big East.
Alas bigger money drives little money out of circulation . So soon Rutgers , and *Louisville were gone replaced by Tulane , ECU and Tulsa , Navy was added in 2015 . The Tulane add was allegedly the cause of the C7 departure.. That was their story ,but reality is they were looking to get out after Syracuse left . Cuse as much as we hate them was a pivotal Big East program .Dave’s dream or what was left of after BC left , died with their departure
* took the spot the wisdom of the time said was ours .