The AAC Front Office Is More Clueless, Shortsighted Than You Think

Aug 30, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; The American Athletic Conference logo on the field before the game between the Houston Cougars and the Southern Jaguars at Reliant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Campbell-USA TODAY Sports

Yesterday afternoon, the American Conference released the 2014 football schedule much to the chagrin of Cincinnati Bearcats fans. The main reason was that they weren’t slated to play Central Florida, the 2013 AAC champs. This would be the second year in a row the Bearcats and Knights wouldn’t hook up on the football field. In all likelihood, UC and UCF will finish in the top-third of the conference next season along with East Carolina. Scheduling all three teams to play each other in a round robin format only makes sense from an exposure and brand advertising standpoint, especially for an American conference that is fighting for respect on a national level.

But the AAC brass didn’t seem to agree and when UC fans approached a member of the front office about what I would consider a drastic mistake, he (Michael Costa, director of American football) didn’t seem concerned.

First of all, if schedules are aligned and locked in years in advance, supposedly immune to changes, why don’t the conferences release them in two- or three-year buckets? They don’t because football schedules are always flexible, especially when it means tweaking just a few teams. If they weren’t, Temple wouldn’t have replaced UCF on Cincinnati’s schedule last year.

No, pitting Cincinnati and UCF on national TV with AAC championship implications on the line, ala UC-Louisville last season, is horrible for the conference. Mike’s right, giving the Bearcats and Knights a primetime spot on a Thursday night with no other competition on TV and potentially two 10 or 11-win teams would never draw positive publicity to the American.

Give me a break.

Wow. Just… wow.

If someone in the AAC front office really believes that scheduling two equally strong programs wouldn’t create a rivalry and interest in the league, we as Cincinnati fans are officially screwed. I mean, is he serious?! Just because UC and UCF haven’t played regularly in the past (and 100 years? C’mon, Central Florida didn’t have a school 100 years ago, Mike) doesn’t mean they can’t develop a burgeoning rivalry in the near future. But I wouldn’t expect someone from a conference like this to understand such a simple concept as “planting the seeds of a rivalry game” to develop the AAC’s brand. Finally there’s this.

Again, Mike, we can see right through your juxtaposition! You want to look out for the long term interest of the conference yet won’t schedule two top-AAC teams two years in a row that might start a heated interest in each of them and the American as a whole down the road? That makes absolutely no sense and is illustrative of a front office that Cincinnati needs to get as far away from sooner rather than later.