Hey, Pac 12, we're here to help: Here are 3 AAC teams you can have. You can choose 2.

The news that the Pac-whatever-number Conference is reeling in four new schools is obviously big news in college athletics.

Adding San Diego State, Colorado State, Boise State, and Fresno State is a, well, stately move for a conference that seemed on the verge of extinction. But it also leaves the Pac two bricks shy of a load. Actually, it leaves the conference in need of adding two more teams to reach the minimum of eight schools required to maintain major conference status.

Here at GreenGoldandBold, we’d like to help. The American Athletic Conference, which USF is a founding member, currently has 14 teams. I believe the AAC could spare two teams to lend a hand to a brother conference.

I’ll give them three options, none of which would include USF or Tulane. I believe the Bulls will eventually wind up in the ACC once Clempson and FSU depart, but that’s a discussion for another day. Tulane stays because no one in the Conference wants to give up a trip to New Orleans.

Let’s wave bye-bye in the AAC to:

Rice – Seriously, would any AAC member miss the Owls if they flew west? It’s an outstanding academic institution, and the football team occasionally plays well – just not so often as to upset the Pac power structure.

Rice is a lovely campus in an upscale part of Houston, so visiting teams would have their pick of nice hotels and good places to feast before they head back home with an easy win.

It would give the Pac-Whatever a toehold in a major TV market, although it’s uncertain whether anyone in Houston beyond the players’ mommas and daddies actually watches the games.

Details.

Tulsa – Hey, Pac-dudes, adding the Golden Hurricane would give you a spot in football-crazed Oklahoma. Think of the possibilities.

OK, nearly all of the fine people in Oklahoma follow the Sooners, and those left over cling to the hope that Okie State will one day supplant their big brother for superiority in the state.

It’ll never happen, by the way, so we’ll leave that between us.

Tulsa brings a lot to the table, though. We’re just not sure what it’s a lot of, but the Pac-people can’t be picky.

Besides, how can you not love a city with something called The Center of the Universe?

According to its website, the Center “is a concrete circle a little more than eight feet in diameter that is an acoustic anomaly. Any noise made inside the brick circle is loudly echoed, but only those inside the circle can hear it.”

That’s sort of like the crowd at a Fresno State game, or so I’m told.

North Texas. The Mean Green would make a fine addition to the Pac-Something-or-Other.

Located in picturesque Denton, Texas, the University of North Texas would make an ideal travel partner for Colorado State and Rice (or Tulsa), and wouldn’t be too long of a jaunt for the other schools.

It’s a huge school – total enrollment: 46,940 – but the AAC can let it go because it’s at the far western edge of the Conference and not really close to anyone other than Rice and Tulsa, as we’ve mentioned. And since one of those schools will be leaving when the Pac-Pick-A-Number poaches them, you might as well grab the Green, too.

No need to thank me.