The 2014 American Athletic Conference football season was the 24th NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision football season of the American Athletic Conference (The American). The season was the second since the breakup of the former Big East Conference, which lasted in its original form from its creation in 1979 until 2013.
The 2014 season was the first with the new College Football Playoff in place. From 1998 to 2013, FBS postseason football was governed by the Bowl Championship Series. With the move to the new format, The American is no longer an Automatic Qualifying conference (AQ), and is considered a member of the "Group of Five" (G5) with Conference USA, the Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference. Whereas under the previous system the champion of The American was guaranteed an automatic berth to a BCS bowl game, now only the highest-ranked member of the "Group of Five" is guaranteed to receive a bid to one of the six major bowls.
The American consisted of 11 members: Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, SMU, South Florida, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF, and UConn. The regular season and conference play began on August 28, when Temple visited Vanderbilt, and Tulane visited Tulsa.
The UCF Knights were the 2013 American Champions, finishing 8âÂÂ0 in conference and 12âÂÂ1 overall. The Knights earned the conference's final BCS automatic bid before college football moved to a playoff system. UCF upset No. 6 Baylor 52âÂÂ42 in the 2014 Fiesta Bowl, and finished the year ranked in the TopâÂÂ10.
In other bowl games, Cincinnati lost to North Carolina 39âÂÂ17 in the Belk Bowl. In their final years as members of The American, Louisville defeated Miami 36âÂÂ9 in the Russell Athletic Bowl, and Rutgers lost to Notre Dame 29âÂÂ16 in the Pinstripe Bowl.
The 2013 American Athletic Conference Preseason Poll was announced at the 2014 American Athletic Conference Media Day in Newport, Rhode Island on July 29, 2014.
Schedule source:
Bye Week: Cincinnati
Bye Week: Cincinnati, UCF
Bye Week: Memphis, SMU, Temple
Bye Week: Tulsa
Bye Week: East Carolina, Houston, UCF
Bye Week: Connecticut, South Florida, Temple, Tulane
Bye Week: SMU
Bye Week: Connecticut, East Carolina, Memphis
Bye Week: Houston, Tulane, Tulsa
Bye Week: SMU
Bye Week: Cincinnati, East Carolina, South Florida, UCF
Bye Week: Houston, Connecticut
Bye Week: Temple
Bye Week: Tulane
Bye Week: Memphis, South Florida, Tulsa
The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the American Athletic Conference football coaches at the end of the season
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Cincinnati will be playing all its 2014 Paul Brown Stadium due to ongoing renovations to Nippert Stadium, capacity: 65,535.<br/> Games highlighted in green were sell-outs.