American Athletic Conference Releases 2014-15 Schedule

The American Athletic Conference has released their slate of conference games, announcing the conference schedule on Thursday afternoon. Tulsa and UCF kick things off on Dec.  31st while the AAC men’s basketball tournament wraps up on with the final on March 15th. The conference will have a different look this season, welcoming newcomers East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa while losing conference linchpins Louisville and Rutgers to the ACC and Big Ten, respectively. The 2015 AAC men’s basketball tournament will have a new host – the XL Center in Hartford, Conn. – and will get underway on March 12th.

The defending national champion Connecticut Huskies start their conference play on Dec. 31st against Temple and will host Cincinnati in an early season battle on Jan. 10th. SMU, under head coach Larry Brown, looks to prove that its impressive 2013-14 season was no one-hit wonder, opening conference play on the road at Memphis while AAC stalwart Cincinnati hosts those same Memphis Tigers on March 8th in a late season tilt that could have big implications on seeding in the conference tournament.

Cincinnati, Connecticut and South Florida are the only remaining members of the original Big East Conference in the American Athletic Conference – a conference that has seen its fair share of changeover since its inception in 2013. It’s plain to see how the lure of football’s increasing revenues have ravaged what was once one of the strongest basketball conferences in the country. Be that as it may, however, the AAC is looking to the future with the addition of three new schools and is the only conference in men’s basketball that can boast the defending national champions.