*Chief among the topics the group is expected to address include potential expansion, scheduling challenges and possible changes in the rights deal with ESPN. *
The American is unlikely to add an all-sports member school to return to 12 teams and finding an ideal football-only member that would both join and add value is also unlikely, a source told The Enquirer earlier this week. But potential football-only and basketball-only additions could become viable during discussions among the league and school officials over the course of the next year. Speculation among national media outlets pointed to Air Force, Army, Boise State, BYU, Georgia State, UNC Charlotte, among others, as potential candidates.
If the math doesn’t work for 11 teams to play 8 conference games against one another, this isn’t just about filling a hole in the 2020 season. It’s going to be a persistent problem year in and year out.
Okay, so the math works fine for 11 teams playing 8 games. So you just rework the schedule with the rest of the conference. This is the easy part! It’s the round-robin that’s the more difficult one.