According to ESPN, the current Big East basketball conference will be renamed the American Athletic Conference as early as Thursday.
UCF will be joining the conference as an all-sports member this upcoming season, along with nine other teams from Conference USA. When the Catholic seven basketball-only schools– DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s and Villanova — split from the current Big East conference, they took the name, and the conference needed a new name for basketball. The new Big East conference, beginning July 1st, will also add Butler, Creighton, and Xavier.
In 2015, the American Athletic Conference will split into two six-team divisions, it is unclear at this time which teams will be in each division.
“We also received terrific input from our partners at ESPN and CBS Sports. Our name is a nod to tradition, but at the same time makes clear our determination to be a Conference with national impact and appeal. The American Athletic Conference will represent core American values of optimism, energy, growth and innovation. We have a broad geographical footprint that represents unity as well as diversity.” Conference commissioner Mike Aresco told CBSSports.com.
