The American Conference is Having a Moment

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The American Conference is Having a Moment

Kyle Wood · Athlon Sports

Thu, Sep 11, 2025 ·

7 min read

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As North Carolina and Charlotte were getting ready to kick off last Saturday, the crowd was buzzing about an upset brewing hundreds of miles away. South Florida had Florida on the ropes.

The Bulls had already knocked off a ranked Boise State team in their season opener , a sign they could contend for a spot in the College Football Playoff. But here was a chance to take down the No. 13 Gators in the Swamp.

"I will admit that when that game kicked off, I was exclusively focused on the end of the Florida-USF game," American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti told Athlon Sports. He wasn't alone.

Pernetti was following along on his phone from a suite at Charlotte's Jerry Richardson Stadium when Nico Gramatica split the uprights to seal Florida's fate . Bulls 18, Gators 16. Pernetti went down to the sideline to give Bulls coach Alex Golesh a congratulatory call. Down in Gainesville, Florida, Golesh and his team were still basking in the glory of USF's first win over UF. Pernetti left a voicemail.

"I was animated to say the least," Pernetti said, "about what it meant for South Florida, what it meant for the league."

South Florida coach Alex Golesh celebrates after the Bulls beat Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Sept. 6, 2025, in Gainesville.

Pernetti said every coach in the American gets at least a text from him when they win a game. And there sure have been a lot of congratulations to go around in the conference two weeks into the college football season.

Though Charlotte ultimately fell to UNC on Saturday with Pernetti in attendance, perhaps no conference in the country has had a better start than the American. South Florida is the only team in the country with two top-25 wins. Tulane also beat Northwestern in Week 1, and Army upset Kansas State on Saturday.

"That bodes well for our conference later on when you're talking about the champion of our conference getting into the Playoff," Navy coach Brian Newberry said.

Pernetti is proud to point out that the Big Ten and SEC — the Power 2 in college football — are 2-2 against the American and 55-5 against the rest of the country. And there are still ample opportunities for the American to continue to prove itself in nonconference play.

No. 18 South Florida, ranked for the first time since 2018, plays at No. 5 Miami on Saturday. Tulane hosts Duke and former Green Wave quarterback Darian Mensah this weekend as well. And Temple, which is 2-0 for the first time since 2019, gets a visit from No. 13 Oklahoma.

Tulane then goes on the road against No. 17 Ole Miss next week. Memphis hosts Arkansas the same day. And in November, Navy travels to take on No. 8 Notre Dame.

"We have scheduled in an aggressive manner outside the conference," Pernetti said. "And when you do that, you create great opportunities to compete against the best and you create great opportunities for exposure — not only for your institution, but for the entire conference."

A view of the pylon with the Tulane and American Conference patches is seen during the Green Wave's game against Northwestern at Yulman Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025, in New Orleans.

When the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams in 2024, the revised format — which rewards the five highest-ranked conference champions — opened the door for the Group of 5. Before Boise State won the Mountain West Conference and punched its ticket to the CFP last season, Cincinnati in 2021 was the only non-power conference team to make the field. (The Bearcats, formerly of the American, have since joined the Big 12.)

The Broncos were widely viewed as the favorite to emerge from the Group of 5 again this season, but their 34-7 loss to the Bulls in the season opener changed that outlook. USF is the No. 12 seed in Athlon's latest playoff bracket projection .

Beyond the Bulls, who broke into the AP Top 25 this week, Tulane and Navy are also receiving votes in the poll. No other Group of 5 conference has a team ranked or receiving votes.

"The results so far have enforced what our goal is as a league in football, which is we expect to be competing in the College Football Playoff," Pernetti said. "I think the early success has shown the country that we have a lot of candidates for that."

That looked to be the case last season, when Army started 9-0 and rose as high as No. 19 in the CFP rankings. Tulane was 9-2 at that point and ranked 20th. Navy and Memphis also enjoyed strong starts. However, late-season losses ultimately knocked the American out of the playoff picture. Army beat Tulane to win the conference in its inaugural year in the American, but Boise State had already run the table in the Mountain West and secured a CFP bid.

American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti congratulates Army on its win over the Tulane Green Wave in the conference championship game at Michie Stadium on Dec. 6, 2024, in West Point, New York.

The 2025 schedule sets up well for whichever team wins the American to wind up in the CFP. Tulane avoids South Florida and Navy this season. However, the Bulls and Midshipmen will meet in Annapolis, Maryland, in November in a game that could decide which team advances to the conference championship game.

Memphis could very well crash the party, just like it did a year ago in the season finale against Tulane. The Tigers have quietly become one of the most consistent winners in college football.

A charter member of the American, Memphis also attempted to leave the conference this offseason for the Big 12, a move that was rebuffed despite the Tigers' lucrative offer .

It's an open secret that Memphis — along with Tulane, South Florida and UTSA — is among the potential targets for a power conference to poach in the next round of realignment.

Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield and his team run out onto the field before their game against Chattanooga at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium on Aug. 30, 2025.

Pernetti acknowledges that realignment is a reality of college athletics. Just last year, Army, a longtime FBS independent, joined the American after SMU left for the ACC.

"Our goal is to make the American a conference that our membership wants to stay [in] and other members want to join from outside the league," Pernetti said.

The American currently has 14 football-playing members spanning from San Antonio, Texas, to West Point, New York, to Tampa, Florida. In a diverse conference home to service academies and private and public institutions, Pernetti said its members are on the same page financially around the idea that "everybody needs more money," which is to say that they are exploring new revenue streams. He said the schools are aligned competitively, too, pointing to their scheduling and the minimum revenue-sharing floor of $10 million over three years .

The conference is also united in its Us > Them campaign, in which the American is flaunting its nonconference victories on social media. The schedule will soon give way to conference games. For some members, that's already happened. But there are still more chances for the American to make its mark against the power conferences in its pursuit of a College Football Playoff berth.

"We've gotten out of the gates strong, and having played college football, I know how that is," said Pernetti, a former Rutgers tight end. "When you get a couple of early wins under your belt, your mindset is that you're going to continue to win."

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Sep 11, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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