USATSI
The American Athletic Conference released its complete schedule for the 2023 college football season on Tuesday as the league prepares to undergo a major realignment. Houston, Cincinnati and UCF are headed to the Big 12 and the league added six new squads to take their place: North Texas, UTSA, Rice, FAU, Charlotte and UAB.
Navy kicks off the AAC season with a trip to Ireland to play against Notre Dame during Week Zero. The rest of the conference begins with a bang as AAC schools play Houston, Michigan and Texas in Week 1. Clemson, Alabama, Washington and Oklahoma rank among other key nonconference games as the conferences attempts to build its brand on the national stage.
The schedule also features headlining matchups moving off Saturdays. SMU will play rival North Texas on Friday, Nov. 10 in their first intra-conference matchup. Tulane also travels to Memphis on Friday, Oct. 13, while new member UTSA could play its final two games on Friday nights.
Cincinnati, UCF and Houston represent more than half of the championships in AAC history. With those three gone, there’s an opportunity for new powers to rise.
The AAC opted to keep scheduling flexibility for television during the last week of the season. Four conference matchups involving eight of the 14 conference teams could be flexed to Black Friday, including a marquee matchup between reigning AAC champs Tulane and Conference USA champs UTSA. The 2023 AAC Championship Game will take place on Dec. 2.
Here are the 2023…
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