Memphis will remain a member of the American Athletic Conference, the school announced Monday.

“The landscape of college athletics has shifted dramatically in the past few years," the university said in a prepared statement. "With that, our focus has remained on ensuring our student-athletes are given the best possible environment to perform their sports and academics at the highest level. After considering other potential options, we have decided our current partnership with the American Athletic Conference is in the best interest of our student-athletes and the future of our University.”

This comes after widespread reports that the Pac-12 had targeted Memphis in its continued expansion efforts, as well as other AAC schools Tulane, UTSA and South Florida.

The AAC issued a statement of its own Monday, in conjunction with Memphis' statement.

"Together, we are committed to continuing to build the American brand, exploring new opportunities for exposure and value, and developing innovative economic resources — all in service of our student-athletes," the prepared statement reads in part.

"While we acknowledge receiving interest in our institutions from other conferences, we firmly believe that it is in our individual and collective best interests to uphold our commitment to each other. Together, we will continue to modernize the conference, elevate the student-athlete experience, achieve championship-winning successes, and build the future."

The move comes less than two weeks after the one-time power conference raided the Mountain West, scoring defections from Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State. Memphis will joins those schools as part of the revived league (which will also include holdovers Oregon State and Washington State) ahead of the 2026-27 athletic season.

Last week, AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti sat down with new Memphis athletic director Ed Scott and later met with local media.

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

"It's an important market. 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."

Memphis has long been transparent in its desire to move on from the AAC (which doles out approximately $8 million annually in media rights money to its members) and get into a power conference. The Pac-12 has not yet agreed to a media rights deal and will not likely be considered a power conference − both reportedly among numerous sticking points for Memphis.

Memphis has gone to considerable lengths in recent years to make itself an attractive candidate for potential suitors. Earlier this year, it began a large-scale renovation project of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium that is expected to cost $220 million. In April, Memphis entered into a landmark partnership with FedEx that saw the global logistics giant commit $25 million in name, image and likeness funds over the next five years to a variety of athletic programs.

The Tigers have also become a significant football brand, which is as much of a driver as anything else in realignment discussions.

Scott openly discussed the prospect of landing in the Big 12 or the ACC during his introductory press conference in June.

MEMPHIS: AAC commissioner Tim Pernetti discusses realignment, calls Memphis a 'terrific brand'

"I can tell you my job is to position us to be ready if something were to happen in one of those two conferences. I think we fit well in both," he said.

The Tigers joined the AAC in 2013. Memphis' conference affiliations before that included Conference USA and the now-defunct Great Midwest Conference, Metro Conference and Missouri Valley Conference.

The Pac-12 crumbled in 2022 when USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington joined the Big Ten, and Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah made the move to the Big 12.

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis announces it is staying in the AAC, despite Pac-12 courtship