The American Athletic Conference announced on Thursday the addition of a conference championship game in football.
The first American Athletic Conference Football Championship will be played Saturday, Dec. 5 at noon (ET) and will be televised nationally on either ABC or ESPN.
The 2015 season will be the AAC's first in its new 12-team, two-division format, in which each team will play eight conference games. Each team will face the other five teams in its own division as well as three teams from the other division.
The AAC's East Division includes UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, USF and Temple. The West Division lineup is Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.
The two divisional champions will meet in the championship game at the home site of one of the participants, not at a neutral site.
The divisional winners will be determined by the team with the best conference record, with the tiebreaker being the head-to-head matchup. To determine the host for the championship game, the team with the better conference record will host. If both teams have the same record, head-to-head will be the first tiebreaker, followed by best overall record if the two teams didn't play each other.
"We are pleased to finalize the details of the first American Athletic Conference Football Championship, which will feature two outstanding and deserving teams," said AAC commissioner Mike Aresco. "We considered a number of different tiebreaker models to determine which teams would play for the conference championship, but in the end, we feel that performance on the field was the best way to proceed."
No details were given on who would host if both teams have the same overall record and didn't play each other.
The winner of the AAC championship game will have the opportunity to participate in one of the College Football Playoff New Year's Bowls if it is the highest-ranked team among the champions of Conference USA, the Mid- American Conference, the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference.
[SportsNetwork.com]
