They wanted to get back to their roots, but C-USA wouldn't sell its name to the former membership
Probably the only thing that kept the AAC schools from claiming some kind of right to is that, for this year, there are more current members of CUSA staying than leaving. Four CUSA schools are leaving this year for AAC (UCF, Memphis, Houston, SMU), with eight staying. But next season, three more head to AAC (ECU, Tulane and Tulsa), so if the Big Least breakup had waiting one more year, the seven departing CUSA schools might have been able to take the name with them. When the dust settles on all this next year (including L'ville's move to the ACC), there will be more founding members of CUSA in the AAC (Cincy, USF, Tulane, Memphis & Houston) than in CUSA (UAB & Southern Miss).