American Stories – American Caps a Remarkable Year with Saturday’s Championship

ORLANDO – This has been an entertaining year in the American Athletic Conference.

The league has produced three teams, UCF,  Memphis and USF, that have cracked the Top 25 and seven conference teams are bowl eligible.

But it is hard to tell how many influential movers and shakers in college football notice  the success story written by this league. The American is intent on changing their minds.

When unbeaten UCF plays 10-1 Memphis here on national television for the American Championship at Spectrum Stadium, we are talking about two high-powered teams with a combined record of 21-1.

Memphis’ only loss was to UCF, 40-13 in a road game back in September, but the Tigers, like the Knights, are much improved. Both of these teams, who rank first (UCF) and second (Memphis) nationally in scoring, have the potential to score 60 points in a shoot-out.

UCF coach Scott Frost, whose team defeated USF, 49-42, in the most entertaining regular-season game in any league this season, said what everyone was thinking when he said that The American deserves more credit than it is getting.

“People have tried to get me to talk about our ranking or where we should be,” he said. “I don’t want to do that. But I will talk about the football in this conference. I don’t think USF gets the credit they deserve. I feel the same way about our opponent tomorrow. They beat UCLA, 48-45; by the about same margin as USC did (28-23) and a bunch people sitting in a room think USC is a lot better team than Memphis. That doesn’t make any sense to me.

“There’s countless examples of that. Arizona being a good Pac-12 team and Houston going out there and getting a win. The UCF score comparison against Maryland compares to Wisconsin’s, and Navy’s to Notre Dame. I think this conference deserves more attention than it’s getting now. And I’m not just saying that about our team. There’s a lot of football teams in this league that could beat a lot of teams form those bigger leagues. And I think a lot of people know it and recognize it.”

The No. 1 team in the CFP rankings, Clemson, lost to Syracuse, yet is playing for the ACC title – against a Miami (Fla.) team that is coming off a lost to a sub-.500 Pitt squad. No. 3 Oklahoma, is playing for the Big 12 title against TCU. Eighth-ranked Ohio State, playing for the Big Ten title, lost by 31 points to Iowa.
UCF has a better record than all of those teams, but has been ranked no higher than No. 14 by the committee. Memphis, which has seen its only loss come to UCF, is ranked No. 20.

Memphis coach Mike Norvell hopes a national televised game like this will increase the spotlight.

“I think anybody who watches college football and knows anything about our conference can see the credibility of our conference in our actions,” Norvell said. “Look at the nonconference schedule our teams play and the success we’ve had. Last year, we had 15 NFL draft picks. This year, it’s going to be another big number. We’ve set a new standard of recruiting. It’s a special league to be a part of and when you play a game like this, the eyes of the nation are on you.”

American commissioner Mike Aresco has been preaching that gospel all season.

And he repeated it again for the record.

“Let’s look at the last five years because how else do you define credibility?” Aresco said. “Look at what Temple did against Penn State (a 27-10 victory) and Notre Dame (a 24-20 loss decided in the final two minutes).  Look what Houston did to Oklahoma and Louisville last year. Look at what ECU did to Virginia Tech (28-21) and North Carolina (70-14) in 2014 when they had (quarterback) Shane Carden. Look at what UCF did to Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl in 2013 (a 52-42 victory), and what Houston did to Florida State in the Peach Bowl in 2015 (a 38-24 victory). Memphis had the big (37-24) win over Ole Miss in 2015. The league has got to get some credit for that.

Aresco has been working hard to increase the visibility of his teams by matching them up against other power conference schools in bowl games. This year, the winner of The American will likely get one in a New Year’s Six bowl.

Ultimately, Aresco would like to get to see the American receive automatic bid to a New Year’s Six bowl.

“This league is good,” he said. “The schools here don’t want to settle for mediocrity.”