The American Athletic Conference, getting set for the first season of its re-branded existence, has a logo. The logo features a blue "A" with a thin white trim around the outside and a red star in the middle, as first seen in a report by USA Today. The conference also has a horizontal alternate mark, which could be used in place of the letter logo. The horizontal mark simple reads "American" in blue capital letters, with a similar red star dotting the "I," with "Athletic Conference" printed below in smaller print.
"It's a bold look," American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said to USA Today. "Obviously this is a media world we live in, and we wanted to make sure we had the kind of mark that would be distinctive and would make an impact when people saw it. We wanted it to be something people would like and remember, but the notion really was to make it as simple as possible but also strong."
Aresco is schedule to participate in a conference call with the media Thursday morning, when the conference formally releases more information on their brand initiative and logo designs. The conference voted to adopt this new logo recently at spring meetings for the conference's leaders and administrators.
The conference is looking to be referred to as The American in short. The American is the new edition of the Big East Conference in 2013, with seven former members without FBS football programs breaking off form the conference to form a new league and negotiating a deal to take with them the Big East brand name. What was left of the conference will adopt the new conference name this year, along with incoming members from Conference USA.
The American will be made up of Cincinnati, Connecticut, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU, Temple, Central Florida and South Florida.
Louisville will leave the American to join the ACC in 2014. Rutgers will also leave in 2014 and will join the Big Ten. East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa are all slated to join the American in 2014, and Navy will join the conference in 2015.
Kevin McGuire is the host of the No 2-Minute Warning podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
