The American Athletic Conference has a new member this year, and there's a good chance all charter members may dislike this decision. Wichita State basketball has joined the AAC for and will immediately be in the running for the conference crown.

The team with the best chance to keep the Shockers from going straight to the top is last season's runner up, Cincinnati. The Bearcats are returning their top three scorers in Jacob Evans, Kyle Washington, and Gary Clark from a team that went 30-6. They're the only other team ranked in preseason polls, securing the 12th and 13th spot in the AP and Coaches poll, respectively.

Other than those two, the door is wide open for teams to make a run. SMU and UCF both received votes in the AP poll, but SMU has some major losses to overcome. Meanwhile, UCF was an NIT team a year ago that lost their second-best scorer.