I don't understand how people can put SO much weight on a regular-season title when the league doesn't have a balanced schedule.
UConn, Tulsa and Houston played/plays every single good AAC team twice (the top six teams). Temple, SMU and Cincinnati did not. That's a huge difference.
Cincinnati plays all top six teams twice. It's just Temple and SMU that do not. Here's every team's single opponents:
SMU (12-4): Temple, UCF
Temple (12-4): SMU, Tulane
Cincinnati (11-5): UCF, Tulane
Houston (11-6): ECU, Memphis
Tulsa (11-6): USF, Memphis
UConn (10-6): ECU, USF
Memphis (7-9): Houston, Tulsa
UCF (6-11): Cincinnati, SMU
ECU (4-13): Houston, UConn
USF (4-13): UConn, Tulsa
Tulane (3-14): Temple, Cincinnati
Ranking of difficulty of conference schedule (Hardest to Easiest -- single team records - hence worst record harder schedule)
1. UConn (8-26)
2. Cincinnati (9-25)
3. Houston (11-22)
4. Tulsa (11-22)
5. Temple (15-18)
6. SMU (18-15)
7. ECU (21-12)
8. USF (21-12)
9. Memphis (22-12)
10. Tulane (23-9)
11. UCF (23-9)