The new conference in college football is the American Athletic Conference. According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, Louisville is the clear favorite to win, as the Cardinals have odds of -160 to take home the 2013 American Athletic Conference crown.
This year's college football season will include a brand new conference of sorts, a hybrid of the Big East and Conference USA. The Big East is no more as far as college football is concerned, one of the casualties to conference realignment, but the programs left over have teamed up with a handful of programs from Conference USA, and more will be on the way in 2014. New kids on the block this football season include Houston, Memphis, SMU and UCF. In addition, next year they will take in East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa, while Navy will join forces in 2015.
Hence, by the time the 2015 football season arrives the conference that started playing football in 1991 will be comprised of 12 teams, only two of which (Rutgers and Temple) were original members. And starting July 1 they officially became known as the American Athletic Conference.
Louisville certainly is the main attraction, but let's not overlook what the threats could be in 2013. Cincinnati and Rutgers (and Syracuse) all had the same conference record as the Cardinals last year, so nobody should assume that Louisville is running away with the conference just yet. The Bearcats put together a 10-win season and Rutgers had one of the top defenses in the country. Not to be overlooked, but Connecticut also had one of the best defenses in the Big East last year as well and is the only team in the conference to have beaten the Cardinals last year.
Lost in the turmoil is the fact that the Big East was the only FBS conference that had seen each of its members play in at least one bowl game the past three seasons, and the only league which saw each team with at least one bowl win the last five years.
Odds to Win 2013 American Athletic Conference Title:
Louisville -160
Cincinnati +475
Rutgers +525
Central Florida +1000
U Conn +2500
SMU +2500
South Florida +3000
Houston +3000
Memphis +6000
Temple +7500
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