The AAC has gained national respect and is the most coveted conference for young coaches to make their mark and athletes like Flowers that want to prove they can play QB. I'd argue that it has some of the hardest working players/coaches b/c they're on the outside looking in and have to be nearly perfect to get a chance at the NC.
It's totally not fair to the coaches/players that they have to be perfect to even get a chance, but in a way this has made the AAC a consistently strong conference in some very fertile football player rich areas of the USA. The AAC is doing more with less than the P5, which makes the current P5 system that much more disgusting. I'm pulling for all AAC teams this bowl season.