USF football will listen close to what new AAC commish says at conference media days

College football media days remind us that the start of the season is near, and we’re all happy about that. But when the American Athletic Conference players and coaches gather starting Monday in Fort Worth, the headlines won’t focus solely on expectations on the field for the coming season.

After the preseason media poll is released Tuesday morning, the spotlight will shine brightly on new Commissioner Tim Pernetti during his interview session at 9:15 a.m. He will field the inevitable questions about realignment, conference expansion and/or departures, and the controversial cap idea he floated for what AAC teams can pay its athletes.

USF athletic director Michael Kelly quickly shot that idea down when Pernetti mentioned it in early July.

“I understand where the new commissioner is coming from, but we would not be supportive of any (conference) cap,” Kelly told Green, Gold and Bold then in an exclusive interview.

“In this era of change and permissiveness in college athletics, USF has found ways to meet the new standards. We are going to be as aggressive as we can  be.”

USF, Memphis, and possibly Tulane have been routinely mentioned as candidates to leave the AAC for a power league in the next round of conference realignment. USF is spending aggressively on athletics, and Memphis just moved into the second phase of a $220 million renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

They’ll listen closely to Pernetti, who took over on June 1 after AAC founder Mike Aresco retired. A cap lower than what power conference teams could pay would be a disadvantage to USF in recruiting.

There also will be plenty of focus on what players and coaches say during their interview sessions. USF is sending head coach Alex Golesh, quarterback Byrum Brown, and cornerback Ben Knox. Player interviews start Monday at 3 p.m.

USF will be taken much more seriously in the preseason poll than it was in 2023, when the Bulls were chosen 13th out of the AAC’s 14 teams. Most of the early predictions so far put USF somewhere between third and fifth place, following the Bulls’ surprising 7-6 record in 2023.

Memphis has generally been seen as the AAC’s strongest team, but for the time being, that is only interesting chatter and background noise.

ESPN+ will pick up the coverage at 9 a.m. Tuesday.