Dude, there were always six autobids. In the old days, the 8-team Big East had the sixth bid. Five of those teams left, and so now the three leftovers plus about 60 other schools have to compete for that sixth bid.
By the way, the American has five teams among the Top 35 in the nation per the final AP Poll. That's more than the ACC (3) or Big 12 (4) and the same as the Pac 12. It's not like the American was chopped liver this year. We had to beat out those teams plus the MWC, CUSA and MAC champs who were also Top 35.
What we did this year was at least as stringent as what the old Big East teams had to do. We earned it with three Top 25 wins in November/December.