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Eye on the Y: Former WAC and Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson revives BYU football-to-the-AAC talk

Provo • Just when it appeared the prospects of BYU’s football program joining the American Athletic Conference were dead, former WAC and Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson revived them with some comments to the Sports Business Journal recently.

In his weekly SBJ College Newsletter, reporter Michael Smith penned a piece that laid out “two scenarios that truly elevate the AAC” after UConn announced recently it was joining the Big East in basketball and other sports and most likely going independent in football, as BYU did in 2011.

Quoting Benson, who recently retired as commissioner of the Sun Belt, the SBJ reported that the AAC will remain at 11 members if ESPN permits the league to keep all of its media-rights revenue.