AAC Basketball: 5 key storylines to watch this 2023 offseason

The AAC welcomes six new schools from Conference USA 

The league loses three teams with Houston, Cincinnati, and Central Florida all headed for the new-look Big 12. When the departures were announced, from a basketball sense it seemed as thin the league may take a step back. In order to reload the conference they raided Conference USA to bring in six new schools, all of which used to call Conference USA home.

They may not have known it at the time but now it looks like the American has struck hoops gold with the additions of Texas- San Antonio, Rice, Charlotte, UAB, North Texas, and Florida Atlantic. The FAU Owls were seconds away from playing for the national championship and UAB battled fellow conference foe North Texas for the NIT title with the Mean Green taking home the hardware. The Charlotte 49ers came away with a title of their own, winning the CIT, and the other Owls joining the conference, the ones from Rice are coming off their winningest season since 2016-17 when Mike Rhoades won 23 games.

The postseason success had by Conference USA has the AAC looking pretty despite losing the program that became the measuring stick in the league. Adding these six schools also makes the conference potentially deeper than it has ever been.