| ... voted to recommend booster shots of the moderna and j&j booster vaccines. it will now be up to the cdc director to give final approval before the shots can start going into the arms of americans. felicia: it is news that has the fau owls turning their heads in celebration. fau is joining the american athletic conference. it's a big move that means big money for fau and has impacts for the future. thanks for staying with us, i'm felicia rodriguez. tiffany: i'm tiffany kenney. there are a lot of musical chairs going on right now in college athletics. fau is one of six teams setting up shop in the aac, creating a 14 team division in football. felicia: sports reporter yianni kourakis has the details on the move and all new reaction tonight from the owls. yianni? yianni: well, as conference realignment continues, you want to be moving on up instead of staying stagnant. in other words, once the music stops in the musical chairs, you want a chair. so when ucf, cincinnati, and houston left the american for the big 12, schools like fau knew they needed to pounce at potential openings in the american. and why is the american more attractive for the owls? primarily money and exposure the -- exposure. the league signed an enormous 12 year, $1 billion deal with espn in 2019, so fau games will be on tv more and their school will be making more money in athletics. the american was just born in 2013 from the downfall of big east footbal and colaborating with conference usa schools. it's also a league with a big geographic footprint that can help with recruiting. administers say that visibility is key. >> the tv deal alone, the exposure of being on national television, the number of nationally televised games that we currently compete in versus what we might compete in in that television package, there is a ocean of difference between them. >> to be on national tv on a regular timetable, it is not trying to figure out how to find us, it is going to be a chance to shine on the national stage. all of you are responsible for that. this institution is getting ready to go somewhere it has never gone before and i'm thrilled to be part of it. yianni: fau has been a d1 program since 1990 three, first and the other antics on than the sunbelt in 2004, conference usa since 2013. again, the six teams joining the american are fau, charlotte, north texas, rice, alabama-birmingham, and ... |