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AAC unveils details for first-ever championship game

(Thomas Campbell - USA TODAY Sports)
(Thomas Campbell - USA TODAY Sports)

The American Athletic Conference will play its first-ever championship game on Saturday, Dec. 5, the league announced Thursday.

The 2015 season is the first time the AAC will play with its new 12-team, two-division format. Each team is scheduled to play eight conference games – against all five in its own division and against three from the other division. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said in a release that the champions from the East and West Division will meet in the title game.

“We are pleased to finalize the details of the first American Athletic Conference Championship, which will feature two outstanding and deserving teams,” Aresco said. “We considered a number of different tiebreaker models to determine which teams would play for the conference championship, but in the end, we feel that performance on the field was the best way to proceed.”

The team with the better conference record among the two division champions will host the title game. If the two divisional champs have the same record, the home team would be determined by head-to-head competition, but if the two teams did not play during the season, the team with the superior overall regular season record would be the home team.

Like in other leagues, the AAC’s divisional champions will be determined by conference winning percentage. In the event of a tie, head-to-head competition would determine the division crown.

To split the league in to two divisions, Navy becomes an official AAC member in football only. The Midshipmen, along with Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa make up the West Division. The East Division includes UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, USF and Temple.

Memphis, Cincinnati and UCF all finished with 7-1 conference records in 2014 and shared the league title.

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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!