AAC football realignment: Mapping out the potential new-look conference

A realigned C-USA would be heavy on teams from Texas, Louisiana

SMU, Louisiana, UTSA, and Louisiana Tech would headline the new-look Conference-USA.

These teams have been to a combined 40 bowl games and have made appearances in the Top 25 rankings (save for UTSA).

Other teams that would comprise C-USA would be UTEP, North Texas, Rice, Tulsa, UL-Monroe, Texas State, and basketball only UT–Arlington.

Seven of the teams in this reimagined Conference-USA would hail from Texas, three from Louisiana, and one from Oklahoma. That doesn’t sound like a wide geographic footprint, but it is when you consider how expansive the state of Texas is. Texas-El Paso would have a very long trip to face Louisiana-Monroe.

This configuration will be a tough sell for the Sun Belt and the American Conferences to approve. Surely those two conferences would like some semblance of representation in the football hotbeds of Texas and Louisiana.

It will be interesting to see what the actual proposal is for a regionalized Sun Belt, American, and Conference-USA.