Army trainer mentions timetable and postseason as factors for joining AAC
One of the final remaining autonomous FBS football programs has now become a part of the Group of Five conference ecosystem.
Army was introduced at the media days of the American Athletic Conference for the first time on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas. Coach Jeff Monken explained that the program had to leave its independent status behind in order to keep up with the rest of college football, due to the challenges of scheduling and recruiting.
\"Scheduling has become a major difficulty, largely due to the changes in college football and the realignments of the major conferences. As these teams change conferences, their schedules have to change as well, causing a significant trickle-down effect,\" Monken stated.
\"Whether it's teams sending us letters saying we need to cancel our game because of a conference change, or other teams changing their schedules due to another opponent, it has become extremely challenging to put together a schedule.\"
Despite these challenges, the Black Knights have only finished with a losing record once in the past eight seasons, despite playing tough schedules. However, aside from the Armed Forces Bowl, Army has only been invited to two bowl games since 1997 and has only won one, the 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl, in a 38-31 overtime victory against North Texas.
By joining a conference for the first time since their 1998-2004 stint in Conference USA, Army now has the possibility, however slim, of making the College Football Playoff. Starting this year, the highest-ranked conference champion from the Group of Five will automatically receive a bid to the 12-team playoff field.
\"I believe it's important that if we want to compete at the FBS level, there should be a pathway to the playoff,\" Monken expressed. \"I'm not naive... It will be extremely difficult for us to win games in this conference, but to not have a pathway, especially in recruiting, it just felt like we needed to be in a position to do so.\"
In the AAC media poll released on Tuesday, Army received one vote to win the conference. Memphis was voted as the favorite, while Army was ranked fifth out of 14 teams.
