2020 American Athletic Conference football season

The 2020 American Athletic Conference football season is the 29th NCAA Division I FBS Football season of the American Athletic Conference (The American). The season is the eighth since the former Big East Conference dissolved and became the American Athletic Conference and the seventh season of the College Football Playoff in place. The American is considered a member of the Group of Five (G5) together with Conference USA (C–USA), the Mid-American Conference (MAC), the Mountain West Conference and the Sun Belt Conference. The entire schedule was released on February 18, 2020..

Previous season
The Memphis Tigers secured their third consecutive West division title and faced the East champion Cincinnati Bearcats in the American Athletic Conference title, defeating Cincinnati in the 2019 AAC Championship game.

Seven teams participated in bowl games during the 2019 season; the league went 4–3. 

SMU lost to Florida Atlantic 28–52 in the 2019 Boca Raton Bowl. UCF defeated Marshall in the Gasparilla Bowl 48–25. Temple lost to North Carolina 13–55 in the Military Bowl. No. 23 Navy defeated Kansas State 20–17 in the 2019 Liberty Bowl. No. 21 Cincinnati defeated Boston College 38–6 in the 2020 Birmingham Bowl after a ninety-minute rain delay. In the latest addition of the Battle for the Bell, Tulane defeated Southern Miss 30–13 in the Armed Forces Bowl.

In the New Year's Six Game, No. 17 Memphis lost to No. 10 Penn State 39–53 in the Cotton Bowl Classic.

Preseason

Departure of UConn
The Huskies' Big East entrance date was confirmed for July 1, 2020 after UConn and The American reached a buyout agreement. At the time this agreement was announced, UConn also announced that its football team would become an FBS independent once it joined the Big East. The American has no immediate plan to add another team to rebalance division, so divisions have been eliminated from the conference for the time being.

Recruiting classes

American Athletic Conference Media Days

Preseason Media Poll
The preseason Poll will be released at the 2020 American Media Day in July 2020.

Head coaches

Coaching changes
At the end of his third season ended in a 4–8 record, South Florida fired Charlie Strong. On December 9, 2019, Jeff Scott, offensive coordinator for Clemson, was hired as the new head coach.

On December 8, 2019 after Norvell's departure to Florida State, Silverfield served as the interim head coach before being promoted to head coach on December 13, 2019.

Coaches
Note: All stats current through the completion of the 2019 season

Source:

Rankings

Schedule

Regular season
The regular season will begin on August 29, 2020 and will end in December. As a result of the calendar, all teams except Navy will have two bye weeks. The AAC Championship Game is scheduled to be held on December 5, 2020

Week 0

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Week 15 (American Athletic Conference Championship)

Week 16

Post Season

Bowl games

Selection of teams
Bowl eligible: 
Bowl-ineligible:

The American vs other conferences

The American vs Power 5 matchups
This is a list of games The American has scheduled versus power conference teams (ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac-12, Notre Dame and SEC). Although the NCAA does not consider BYU a "Power Five" school, the ACC considers games against BYU as satisfying its "Power Five" scheduling requirement. Though the American does not consider BYU a power 5 team they consider them an equally strength opponent. All rankings are from the current AP Poll at the time of the game.

The American vs Group of Five matchups
The following games include The American teams competing against teams from the C-USA, MAC, Mountain West or Sun Belt.

The American vs FBS independents matchups
The following games include The American teams competing against FBS independents other than Notre Dame, which is universally considered a Power Five program, or BYU, which some but not all Power Five leagues consider to be a Power Five opponent for non-conference scheduling purposes. Of the remaining four independents, two are on American member schedules—Army and UMass.

Records against other conferences

Regular Season

Post Season

Awards and honors

Player of the week honors

American Athletic Individual Awards
The following individuals received postseason honors as voted by the American Athletic Conference football coaches at the end of the season

All-conference teams

All-Americans

The 2020 College Football All-America Teams are composed of the following College Football All-American first teams chosen by the following selector organizations: Associated Press (AP), Football Writers Association of America (FWAA), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), Walter Camp Foundation (WCFF), The Sporting News (TSN), Sports Illustrated (SI), USA Today (USAT) ESPN, CBS Sports (CBS), FOX Sports (FOX) College Football News (CFN), Bleacher Report (BR), Scout.com, Phil Steele (PS), SB Nation (SB), Athlon Sports, Pro Football Focus (PFF) and Yahoo! Sports (Yahoo!).

Currently, the NCAA compiles consensus all-America teams in the sports of Division I-FBS football and Division I men's basketball using a point system computed from All-America teams named by coaches associations or media sources.  The system consists of three points for a first-team honor, two points for second-team honor, and one point for third-team honor.  Honorable mention and fourth team or lower recognitions are not accorded any points.  Football consensus teams are compiled by position and the player accumulating the most points at each position is named first team consensus all-American.  Currently, the NCAA recognizes All-Americans selected by the AP, AFCA, FWAA, TSN, and the WCFF to determine Consensus and Unanimous All-Americans. Any player named to the First Team by all five of the NCAA-recognized selectors is deemed a Unanimous All-American.

All-Academic

National award winners
2020 College Football Award Winners

NFL Draft

The following list includes all AAC players who were drafted in the 2021 NFL Draft.

References

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