The American Athletic Conference has a new name. It’s now just the American Conference.
The league announced a conference rebrand on Monday, which includes the new name, no acronym, a mascot, motto and more.
The league took the name “American Athletic Conference” in 2013 amid a wave of realignment within the Big East, when the conference’s non-football schools broke off to form their own league and took the Big East name with them. The American has gone through a lot of change in the ensuing 12 years, losing and adding schools, but it also established itself as the top Group of 5 football conference in most years, and it was the only G5 league to have a team make the four-team College Football Playoff, when now-former member Cincinnati did in 2021.
“Where we had a challenge was that nobody could really define what the brand stood for,” commissioner Tim Pernetti said. “Where we landed was, we have a great word, so let’s build around that word.”
As for that acronym, “AAC” was never an official part of the league’s desired brand. Former commissioner Mike Aresco didn’t want it to be used, but college sports fans and media operate largely in acronyms, with the exception of the “Big X” leagues, so the abbreviation stuck, even if it wasn’t hard to mix up the AAC and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) at a glance. The league’s rebrand packet released Monday notes the desire to avoid that confusion.
Pernetti said that during one of his first meetings with league presidents about a rebrand, he typed “AAC” into a browser and it defaulted to ACC. So the league now just goes by “The American,” even if it may take everyone time to adjust. Pernetti informed EA Sports ahead of time to make sure “AAC” wasn’t in the College Football 26 video game.
“I think we’re gonna have to do a little hand-to-hand combat on it,” Pernetti joked. “Let’s not get into the acronym business. Let’s not be too similar to someone else.”
The rebrand also includes a bald eagle mascot named Soar, believed to be the first for a conference. The league revealed logos of Soar wearing football and basketball gear, with the potential to add other sports in the future. Pernetti said there will be at some point a physical costumed mascot.
“There’s so much we can do with that, because it’s unique to the conference and uniquely American,” Pernetti said. “Will it show up physically in certain places, too? Absolutely.”
The American’s new mascot, Soar, in football and basketball player form.
The American enters its 13th season expected to once again be one of the top conferences in college football outside the Power 4. It has also stayed intact, keeping its schools together without anyone jumping to the rebuilding Pac-12 over the past year. Memphis has been public about its desire to get to the Big 12 or the ACC, but the American’s TV deal with ESPN into 2032 has remained the most lucrative in the G5. The Tigers received $11 million total from the AAC in 2023-24, tops in the league. Pernetti has called that TV deal the league’s best asset.
“It’s encouraging that we keep moving the chains down the field,” Pernetti said. “Our goal with The American is to make it a conference people want to stay in because they see the growth for their brand and their success and their business. It puts us in a really good position.”
In Pernetti’s first year in charge, the league has introduced a new revenue-sharing model centered on football and basketball success, created RISE Ventures to lead its business innovation and established a minimum investment of $10 million over three years that each school must put toward the revenue sharing system implemented by the House v. NCAA settlement. The commissioner is also still open about the league’s interest in private capital.
A conference that was mostly cast aside when it split and lost its name 12 years ago has struck around and thrived. That remains the goal into the future.
“The resilience of this league, the hard-working nature, the grit, low-ego, these things make our conference hugely popular,” Pernetti said. “So we have to stick to who we are and build around that.”
(Images courtesy of The American)
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