The American Conference is standing pat.
Despite interest from Miami (Ohio), James Madison and UConn, the league will not add any of the three football programs that reached out about membership, according to college football reporters Brett McMurphy and Pete Nakos. The news comes even after Miami (Ohio) put forward a reported $30 million to $40 million offer for a place in the conference.
Miami (Ohio) and James Madison were pursuing full membership. UConn, meanwhile, wanted football only, leaving its other sports in the Big East.
Miami (Ohio) made the loudest push. Over the past year, the RedHawks have worked hard to present themselves as an expansion candidate, backed by one of the biggest roster payrolls outside the power conferences. That investment has paid off on the field, where they’ve reached three straight Mid-American Conference title games.
The school’s basketball program has also been on a steep climb. Travis Steele’s team went 32-2 last season and finished 18-0 in conference play. In February, Miami’s Board of Trustees approved a $242 million plan for a new arena.
“This isn't some fluky, cute story,” Miami athletic director David Sayler said in March about the basketball program.
The size of Miami’s offer fits the kind of expansion model American commissioner Tim Pernetti laid out at league media days in July. “It's got to be almost like pro sports where schools are almost paying expansion fees to get into these conferences,” Pernetti said per Green, Bold & Bold.
Miami’s reported bid was roughly twice the $18 million entry fee Sacramento State paid to join the Mid-American Conference this year. Even so, the American is not moving forward with expansion right now.
The league has plenty to sell. In 2019, it locked in a 12-year, $1 billion media rights deal with ESPN. At the time, that payout worked out to more than $7 million per school annually, well above what other conferences at this level were bringing in.
Pernetti has also pushed the league into a different business setup, moving multimedia rights in-house and launching Rise Ventures. The conference’s value doubled in 11 months.
On the field, the American has also made a strong case for itself. Last season, it was the only conference to beat teams from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC. It remains the only non-power league with multiple College Football Playoff teams, after Cincinnati made it in 2021 and Tulane did it last season.
UConn’s pitch is a return to familiar territory. The Huskies left the league six years ago, rejoined the Big East in 2020 for every sport except football, and have played football as an independent since then.
Under former coach Jim Mora, UConn went 9-4 in both 2024 and 2025 before Mora departed for Colorado State after last season. Jason Candle took over, and the Huskies are 2-1 this year.
James Madison, for its part, keeps building momentum after becoming the first Sun Belt team to reach the College Football Playoff last season. The Dukes moved to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2022 and have gone 43-11 since then.
Two of the interested schools will meet this weekend. UConn visits Miami (Ohio) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
ET at Yager Stadium in Oxford, Ohio. Candle went 3-1 against the RedHawks while he was Toledo’s head coach.
In Other News...
Jason Candles Ohio Return Gives UConn An Early Road Test
Jason Candles first road trip back into familiar Mid-American Conference territory comes with a little extra edge, and UConn will get a useful early read on where it stands under its first-year head coach. Candle spent a decade leading Toledo, so a matchup with Miami (Ohio) brings him back to a league and a setting he knows well, even if the Huskies are the ones now absorbing the lessons of an early-season test away from home.
Miami, too, offers a clean measuring stick because the RedHawks have been part of the MAC backdrop Candle lived in for years. UConn will be looking to see how it handles the pace, physicality and game-day environment on the road, and Candles own history against this conference adds another layer to a game that already carries some intrigue for a program trying to establish its identity. [Read more 🡒]
UConns Conference Future Just Got A Lot More Complicated
Reports surfaced this week that UConn football is being tied to a football-only return to the American Athletic Conference, a development that would reshape the programs long-running independence without touching the Huskies other sports. The idea comes with Miami of Ohio and James Madison also pursuing full membership, adding another layer to a conference picture that has been anything but static.
But the UConn side of the story is still murky. Athletic director David Benedict said he was never contacted about the report and was unaware of any such plans, leaving the Huskies with no clear indication that a move is actually in motion. For now, football remains independent while the rest of UConns programs continue in the Big East, and the gap between speculation and reality is still wide. [Read more 🡒]
UConn Let A Winnable Road Game Slip Away Late
UConn had a road game in reach before it slipped away late in a 24-21 loss to Miami (Ohio), a result that will sting because the Huskies had enough offense to make it a very playable afternoon. Kalieb Osborne did his part, throwing for 215 yards and a touchdown while adding 68 rushing yards and another score, giving UConn a balanced enough attack to stay in it against a Miami team that kept answering.
The RedHawks leaned on David McComb, who was sharp while he was in the game, completing 19 of 29 passes for 312 yards and two touchdowns before leaving injured. Even with that setback, UConn could not finish the job when it mattered most, and the late sequence will linger as the kind of missed chance that can define an early-season road trip. [Read more 🡒]