The American Athletic Conference (The American or AAC) is an American collegiate athletic conference, featuring 11 member universities – and four associate member universities – that compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, with its football teams competing in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest levels for athletic competition in U.S. collegiate sports. Member universities represent a range of well-regarded private and public universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, Western, and Southern regions of the United States.