FAU athletics officially has a timeline for its move to the American Athletic Conference. The Owls will begin their new era in the fall of 2023.
The AAC will add six new members to its ranks, all from Conference USA including UAB, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Texas, Rice and UTSA, in addition to FAU. They will be replacing three of the conference’s biggest programs that are leaving for the Big 12, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF.
The move will allow the Owls to compete in bigger markets than they have in the past such as Tampa (USF), Memphis and New Orleans (Tulane).
FAU vice president and director of athletics Brian White is excited for this next phase of the university’s growth.
“I think for us, FAU, the university and our athletic department, the term our president uses is ‘unbridled ambition,’ and we’ve adopted that ambition here in our athletic department, ” White said Tuesday. “So, our goal of increasing competition and growing our athletic department, improving the platform that we put our student athletes on, I think that ideal has been here for a long time.
“And with some openings that opened up, we were very excited about the prospect of competing within the same league as those current [AAC] institutions.”
The timing was something that was decided upon by the university after they received an invitation from the conference to join in the fall of 2023, along with the rest of the new members.
The invitation came as a result of the three AAC schools moving to the Big 12 the same year.
White, who said FAU was encouraged to join no later than 2024, acknowledged that making the move a bit earlier than expected is for the best.
“With any positive change, you’d love to have it happen sooner rather than later,” he said.
Since FAU has an entire academic year before going to the AAC, the university will take that time to maximize its athletic department as much as possible.
“We’re working on improving each and every day,” White said. “And that’s contributed to helping us get to where we are. But our goal hasn’t been to just get in the American and kind of survive and participate, our goal is to be excellent and to be extremely competitive.”
One of the biggest benefits for FAU will be the exposure that the university’s 19 programs will receive with the new membership.
The AAC has not only been the best non-Power Five college football conference over the last several years, but it also been operating on a much larger TV contract than other Group of Five leagues. In 2019, the American signed a 12-year $1 billion contract with ESPN, although its unclear whether the conference realignment will change anything.
Additionally, the move will give the Owls an opportunity to compete at a higher level against stiffer competition.
Although the AAC will offer plenty of benefits for FAU, White believes that the school also brings a lot of value to its new league.
“We think we can have incredible success here and really be a big benefit to [the AAC], and I think they see that as well too,” White said. “They’re not adding us for what we are today, they’re adding us for what they believe we can become and how much they think we can grow.
“So, I think they like what we’ve done, but they really like what they think we can do in the future.”
