2017 Football Schedule Release Announcement

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Commissioner Mike Aresco has announced the 48-game conference schedule, in conjunction with the complete 96-game schedule, for American Athletic Conference football teams in the 2017 season.

The 2017 season marks the third year of the conference’s four-year scheduling cycle in which each of the 12 teams in The American plays eight conference games - five against the other teams in its division and three against teams from the other division. The two division winners will meet Dec. 2 in the third American Athletic Conference Football Championship.

“I am pleased to announce the 2017 football schedule, which will reveal the high quality of our teams from start to finish,” said Aresco. “Our schools are again challenging themselves with quality nonconference games against other Power 6 opponents. Our intraconference games will continue to feature interesting, competitive and exciting play, and will continue to provide entertaining viewing for college football fans across the country as well as great value to our television partners (ESPN and CBS Sports).”

The American Athletic Conference further established itself as one college football’s top conferences in 2016 as the league produced three teams (USF, Temple, Tulsa) with at least 10 wins, putting The American alongside the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 as the only FBS conferences with three 10-win teams in each of the last two seasons. The American sent seven of its 12 teams to bowl games and produced two first-team All-America players (Ed Oliver of Houston and Zay Jones of East Carolina).

The 2017 season begins Aug. 26, when USF - ranked No. 19 in the 2016 final national polls - visits San Jose State. All 12 teams are in action the following weekend, while conference play begins Sept. 9, with Memphis at UCF, USF at UConn, and Tulane at Navy.

Some highlights of the 2017 schedule include:

At least two key Thursday-night conference games on ESPN: Temple at USF on Sept. 21 and Memphis at Houston on Oct. 19. Additional Thursday games may be added at a later date.

A slate of Friday prime time conference games on national television, including Memphis at UConn on Oct. 6 (ESPN); Tulane at Memphis (CBS Sports Network) and Tulsa at SMU (ESPN2) on Oct. 27; and Temple at Cincinnati on Nov. 10 (ESPN2). Additionally, USF’s Sept. 15 home game against Illinois will be on ESPN, marking The American’s first weeknight prime time game against a Big Ten opponent.

A pair of post-Thanksgiving Friday games on the final week of the regular season on ESPN networks as UCF hosts USF in the War On I-4 showdown, while Navy is at Houston in a matchup of the last two American West Division winners.

A total of 17 of The American’s 48 nonconference games will be against Power 6 opponents or Notre Dame. American Athletic Conference teams have a combined five games against the Big 12, four against the ACC, three against the Big Ten, two each against the Pac-12 and Notre Dame, and one against the SEC. The American has won 19 games against Power 6 opponents in the past two years and has two New Year’s Bowl wins against those opponents since 2014.

A total of 16 games against Conference USA, the MAC, the Mountain West and the Sun Belt. The American went 10-1 against teams from those conferences in the 2016 regular season and is 20-2 against those leagues in the last two regular seasons.

Five nonconference games against teams that were ranked among the top 18 in last year’s final polls. Tulane faces No. 5 Oklahoma Sept. 16, Cincinnati is at No. 10 Michigan Sept. 9, Tulsa opens at No. 11 Oklahoma State Sept. 2; and East Carolina has consecutive games against No. 18 West Virginia (Sept. 9) and No. 16 Virginia Tech (Sept. 16).

The American Athletic Conference Football Championship, which has been broadcast on ABC in each of the last two years, is scheduled for Dec. 2 and will be televised either on either ABC or ESPN.

The 2017 season is the fourth under The American’s current television contract, which provides for more than 80 percent of conference-controlled games to be televised nationally on either ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews and CBS Sports Network, with the remainder on regional television or ESPN3.

All of Navy’s home games in the 2017 season will once again be televised on CBS Sports Network. The annual Army-Navy game, scheduled for Dec. 9, will be televised on CBS.

Kickoff times and television designations for the first three weeks of the season will be made final in June, while the rest of the schedule will fall under the customary 12-day and six-day selection processes.