AAC Basketball: Examining 8 potential candidates for expansion

Conference realignment is alive and well in the world of collegiate sports. Though many of the changes are done with football in mind, it’s clear that these changes have a dynamic effect on college basketball. The first big domino in this cycle of realignment is clearly Oklahoma and Texas departing the Big 12 for the SEC. This recent departure will no doubt lead to more change being in the air and has directly led to the most recent reports from the Big 12.

It has been reported that later this week the Big 12 could be adding to their now reduced membership, poaching Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF from the AAC while also adding BYU, who plays in the WCC in basketball. Currently sitting at just eight members, the Big 12 desperately needed to make a move to secure the future of the conference and this certainly seems to be the move. When all is said and done, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the conference add additional teams, especially if any of their other members are poached by other power conferences.

If these four teams do join the Big 12 sometime in the near future, it leaves quite a hole in their former conferences. We’ll focus on BYU (and a potential move for Gonzaga) at another time, but losing three different talented programs would be a punch in the gut for the AAC. Houston just made the Final Four, UCF football has been fantastic in recent years, and Cincinnati has made waves in both basketball and football in recent years, especially this year on the gridiron.

With those absences, it’s clear that the ACC will have to do exactly what the Big 12 is doing: expand their ranks. There are a number of teams that could be ideal for expansion for the AAC and we’re going to take a closer look at a few of their cases. One thing to keep in mind is that the AAC is a football conference, even if they are a Group of 5 conference. We will not be considering schools, like those in the A-10, that do not have football programs at the FBS level.

Without further ado, let’s get into some of these schools, knowing full well that the AAC will likely be looking to these to rebuild their ranks.