American Conference has some traditionally strong teams in East Carolina, Tulane, Houston with occasional strong performances by UCF, USF, Cincinnati and Memphis.
I think they're better now CUSA who really has a strong Rice program as the standard bearer with occasionally good teams from FAU, FIU. WKU and MTSU.
I think the Big South is a solid #5 but really close to CUSA and American.
(1) SEC
(2) ACC
(3) American
(4) CUSA
(5) Big South.
4 out of 8 American Conf teams earned NCAA bids last year with Houston hosting. I believe their conference RPI was unbelievably high like #3 or #4 or something.
I believe the coaches picked Memphis to finish 7th in conference