AAC Football: Most Important Non-Conference Games in 2017

The complete 2017 AAC football schedule has been released by the conference. Here are the most important non-conference games for each AAC school.

The American Athletic Conference — the conference that provided the college football world with another acronym to confuse with the ACC — enters its fifth season of play after rebranding out of the split of the Big East.

Last year’s champion Temple failed to land the Access Bowl bid, but five AAC different teams finished with at least nine wins. It will be interesting to see whether any of the AAC contenders can take charge of the league and emerge atop the Group of Five hierarchy this season.

For teams vying for that mid-major bid into a New Year’s Six game, a statement win over a Power Five school can pay huge dividends. Winning a conference championship is but the first of several criteria that must be met. A win over any Power Five school is good, a win over a Power Five conference contender is even better, and even a close loss against a quality opponent can be forgiven.

Every AAC team has at least one Power Five opponent on its schedule. Some of those games, such as Houston’s win over Oklahoma last year, are high-risk/high-reward situations that could eventually vault a team into College Football Playoff contention.

Others offer more manageable chances to win over a middling major-conference opponent. Many of the games on this year’s list will be played on the AAC school’s home field, even, offering a chance to sell out the stadium.

Teams are listed in their order of conference record in 2017. Click ahead to see which games we think will be most important for AAC teams in the upcoming season.