In Memphis on Tuesday, American Athletic Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti made it clear he values the Tigers as a key member of the conference.

"We need Memphis to be successful in the American for the American to be successful," Pernetti said at an afternoon news conference. "So it's great to see everybody driving in the same direction."

After taking over for Mike Aresco as AAC commissioner in June, Pernetti has been visiting each school in the conference and happened to be scheduled for Memphis this week.

Still, his visit came against the backdrop of yet another round of conference realignment. The Pac-12 last week added four schools from the Mountain West, and Memphis has been talked about as the Pac-12's next target.

"It's an important market," Pernetti said of Memphis. "It's a terrific brand, which is also the case. And I think that the more success we can have here, it will benefit the conference and its membership as well. That's not to say that their success is any more important than everybody else's success. We want everybody else achieving success as well."

Pernetti spent time with new Memphis athletic director Ed Scott. It was the first time the two men had talked face-to-face since Scott took over in late July.

Scott has been open about his plans for Memphis in the greater conference realignment conversation. He has said multiple times that his goal is to get Memphis into a power conference, likely the ACC or the Big 12. This iteration of the Pac-12 is not likely to be considered a power conference.

"I don't think the speculation does anybody any good," Pernetti said. "But we do have a lot of really healthy dialogue going on around us and it was a really productive discussion."

Pernetti said he has made progress in talks about possible private equity deals with the AAC, and said he has seen plenty of interest in joining the conference from schools around the country. That comes after multiple reports that the AAC is targeting Air Force as a potential member.

"This goes back to when I started on June 3, and even before when Mike (Aresco) was the commissioner, we've been very encouraged by the amount of inbound there has been with people that are interested in being a part of our conference," Pernetti said. "Having said that, we've been pretty adamant about value."

After attending Memphis football coach Ryan Silverfield's radio show Monday night, Pernetti spent Tuesday on campus meeting with Tigers officials. He said he left the meeting encouraged about the direction the conference is heading.

He also was encouraged by his relationship with Scott, noting they're both from the Northeast and "shoot straight with each other."

"You can't control a lot of these things, but I know what we do control, which is how we're building the enterprise and the conference," Pernetti said. "But I felt good about the meeting, and especially good about the transparency."

Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti said about Memphis' AAC future