Sources: Army to Join AAC as Football-Only Member in 2024
Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images. Pictured: An Army Black Knights pylon and helmet.
Army will join the American Athletic Conference as a football-only member in 2024, ending a 20-year run as an independent, sources told Action Network.
Army returns to a conference for the first time since 2004, when it ended a six-year stint in Conference USA.
There were several factors in Army’s decision to join the AAC, sources said.
Among them: Army will receive substantially more revenue distributed by the College Football Playoff in a conference compared to what it received as an independent; the recent rule change outlawing the cut block, which had allowed Army to thrive running the option; and the opportunity for increased television revenue moving forward.
There were some challenges that had to be resolved for the move to happen, sources said, including Army negotiating with CBS Sports and ESPN regarding its future television inventory.
Also, as an independent, Army has scheduled games out for the next 10 years, so the Black Knights must reschedule most of those games and/or find a way out of those contracts. That will be an ongoing process, a source said.
Army’s move to the AAC will occur during one of the Black Knights' most successful runs in more than 60 years. Under head coach Jeff Monken, Army won more than 10 games in consecutive seasons in 2017-18 for the first time in school history, and it has reached a bowl game in five of the last seven years.
This year, however, the 2-4 Black Knights are unlikely to find themselves in the postseason.
The addition of Army gives the AAC a 14-team football league starting in 2024.
The Black Knights join at least 13 other schools changing conferences next year: Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12; Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC; and Cal, SMU and Stanford to the ACC.
Although Army and Navy will both be in the AAC, the annual Army-Navy game will still be played on the second Saturday in December and will count as a nonconference contest. If Army and Navy ever finished in the top two in the AAC standings, they would play for the AAC title the first weekend in December and also the following week in a nonconference game.
This is the Black Knights’ 131st season of football and will be their second stint in a conference. From 1998-2004, Army competed in Conference USA with current AAC members East Carolina, Memphis, Tulane, UAB and USF. From 1890-1997, Army was an independent.
Army’s non-football sports will remain competing in the Patriot League.
With Army’s move to the AAC, only three FBS independents remain: Notre Dame, UConn and UMass.
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