Army joins American: Service academy will enter conference as football-only member beginning in 2024 season
Army has operated as an independent program since the 2004 season
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OT: Army joining AAC in football only
- Thread starter knight82
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Agreed. Army regularly plays many schools currently in the American. Should make scheduling easier without the competition being more challenging. Definitely helps with TV exposure.
AAC is also a mostly southern league were they get most of their recuits and institutional support. At the other end of the spectrum would be the Patriot League were Army plays lacrosse. Great league for lacrosse but an empty cupboard for football. I will miss CBS Sports games. Their announcer are good and know Army well. They don't do schtick and jargon. ESPN can bring the people who talk too much/loud.
There are still details to be worked out
and extracting themselves from future schedules is one of those things. I think it costs 35M iirc. So they have try to maneuver around that and see if they can get some of their opponents to play each other instead.
didn't they just recently kick UConn out for football when UConn dumped them for the Big East in all other sports?
I'll take either of them or both for a bought game...
Play one of them one season, one the next.
Yeah, but not the best schools that were C-USA back in 1995. The original CUSA was on par with the BE. Cincy, Houston, Louisville, ECU were the class of the conference. Marshall and So Miss were in their heydays. I remember a year when ECU had more OOC wins over BE teams than we did in conference.
The AAC today is a shell of what it was when formed. The former CUSA schools in the AAC were all dogs in '95, or .2, .3 call ups. Army should do just fine playing in what is now the third best G league.
Army suffered back then because they were always smaller than the rest of the teams, and they had a lot of injuries over course of a season .
Navy would give its 300 pounders medical waivers but Army always had to be square and rub it in that they were the true SA sticklers. 225lb guys had to put on 50lbs to TRY and hit 275 and then have to lose it to make limits. I rmember Army with 195 lb 6' LBs playing Cincy and Louisville in 2004 (last CUSA year). Players were also forced to do PT along with football practice in heat.
The Army AD (Rick Greenspan) was a jerk who fired a good coach (Sutton) and forced a pro offense while being a "builder" AD. Rick Greenspan entered Army into 15 years of oblivion.
"I understand college football, I understand the coaching profession, I understand bottom-line philosophy," Sutton said. "I was only interested in having the opportunity to finish what I started and to finish what I was promised. I was probably too idealistic because I felt the academy would not compromise one of its principles and one of its real bedrock values."
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No weirder than Ohio State and Michigan meeting in back to back weeks, and much less likely.
At least it makes sense for OSU-UM to have a rematch.
It looks like Army-Navy would play again AFTER the AAC Championship game.
That's like Chiefs-Eagles playing again after the Super Bowl just because they have to always play every year.
It’s basically an exhibition game. Postseason set well before they play. Means nothing but bragging rights
Means nothing but bragging rights, which mean everything.
To Army and Navy and their alums and fans, that game means EVERYTHING.
UConn basically left the AAC with 2 middle fingers pointed at them when they went to the BE. They'll NEVER be allowed to park football there by itself. It's amazing how UConn basically burned bridges with the ACC with the lawsuit and the AAC on the way they left. They're gonna end up having to go back to FCS as a result. UMass on the other hand probably should consider it.
UConn acts as if it was Ohio State or Michigan. The sense of entitlement stemming from the 2003 lawsuit on forward is incredible.
Would they have been NCs in basketball if they had stayed in the AAC? Probably. So much is coaching
Yes maybe even too much.
Trent Steelman never beat Navy but was about to in his last year but FB fumbled on goal in final seconds.
Steelman just broke-up crying
Army puts tremendous stress on beating Navy (who beat Army 14 years straight before Monken).
After saying grace at meals they give the "Beat Navy" cheer and you have to say that phrase a ridiculous amount.
You have the "Beat Navy! tunnel and its on roofs of large buildings, glasses, dishes - its everywhere.
An Army coach who cant beat Navy will not keep his job even if the seasons are good.
A class and QB that doesn't beat Navy is practically psychically scared and that the institution wont let you forget.
One slimer put up a vid making fun of Steelman's tears and his father responded
"I am Trent's father. I can honestly say I had not witnessed Trent shed a tear ever since he was 2-3 years old prior the A/N game his senior year including broken bones sticking out of his leg. He is truly one of the toughest and least emotional people I have ever known. That emotion at the end of that game was 5 years of blood, sweat and tears given at West Point and West Point prep in an effort to restore Army pride in football. The fact that Army was so close but no cigar every year during his tenure was stored up and released during his final game. His love for Army football and West Point is without question. Obviously, CBS took advantage of the emotion with the camera on Trent and not the winning team. My father was a 20 year WW11 veteran and my brother served 25 years in the Army and was a Desert Storm vet and neither will ever call in to question the toughest or manhood of Trent Steelman."
Not the same taunting vid but its shows how players can get really stressed-out over that game
