Wichita State will save big American celebration for September

Wichita State’s official entrance into the American Athletic Conference will come off quietly on July 1.

The school and conference will save its splash for late September when American commissioner Mike Aresco and other conference officials are scheduled to visit Wichita.

“They wanted to do it a time when people are starting to pay attention to universities again,” Wichita State president John Bardo said. “Kids are starting to think about basketball season coming up. The community is starting to think about it. It’s a good time to do that.”

WSU expects the American to pay for a downtown billboard welcoming the Shockers to the conference as July 1 nears. Advertisements and social media mentions will show up later in June.

“One of the things that I’ve been most impressed with is that the American is treating us as an honored new member, not just ‘OK, you guys are there,’ ” Bardo said.

Aresco said he will visit Wichita on Sept 24 and 25 to mark WSU’s entrance into the AAC with public events. The Shockers will play their first American competition on Sept. 22 when the volleyball team plays at Temple. The fall date won’t compete with summer vacations and July 4th holiday for attention.

“We’ve got a whole range of activities planned,” Aresco said. “I’ll be there in September to officially welcome them into the conference.”

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Wichita State will save big American celebration for September."