The AAC often tries to brand itself as the 6th power conference. I thought it might be fun to consider how the AAC would do against the "worst" P5 conference, the Big 12 in some hypothetical matchups. Below is how the teams might be paired up in an AAC- Big 12 challenge. The AAC has 12 teams to the Big 12's 10, so I left out us and UConn as the two last place teams in each division.
Houston vs Oklahoma
Temple vs Oklahoma St.
South Florida vs West Virginia
Navy vs Kansas St.
Tulsa vs TCU
Memphis vs Baylor
UCF vs Texas
SMU vs Texas Tech
Cincinnati vs Iowa St.
East Carolina vs. Kansas
Looking at these head to head, I'd have to say the AAC matches up very well. Houston already beat Oklahoma. Temple, South Florida, and Navy (assuming no injuries) would play right with their matchups. Tulsa and Memphis would likely be favorites. UCF, SMU, Cincinnati, and East Carolina would have great chances to win their games. The conference would go no worse than 5-5 in these games and may even do as well as 8-2 or 7-3. The point being that, for 2016 at least, the AAC's claim as a power conference is very justified. Hopefully a strong bowl season will further reinforce this claim.
AAC vs Big 12
- tulaneoutlaw
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- GreenieBacker
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Re: AAC vs Big 12
at some point last football year we were ahead of the Big 12 in some strength of conference matrix. The bottom line is that the AAC is no slouch in football and can hold its own.
A magic dwells in each beginning- H.H.