More AAC

[westcoastarmyfan]

The Athletic's lead question for the G5 mailbag was why should Army join the AAC.

The poster pointed out that Army is enjoying a great run as an Indy and Navy sucks, and Army has games scheduled through 2032.

Chris Vannini of the Athletic agreed that Conf USA was a disaster. He states that the double one-season Army Navy games will be a rarity, and there will be a hurdle of the Army CBS contract and the AAC ESPN deal to overcome. He said he thinks Army should join AAC because with the P5s growing, and requiring more P5 conference games, that will squeeze out Army's Indy schedule, and that CFB is now reliant on conferences and the power they hold. This would ensure some stability and security for Army.
He does not agree with the Navy argument that the conference is responsible for their poor play. He points to AF success over the years and concludes that SAs can win in a conference.

[Oliphant]

Among the many questions in his G5 Mailbag today, Chris Vannini of The Athletic answers the question: Why would Army join the AAC? His response, in part:

Why in the world would Army join the AAC? It’s in the midst of its best run in modern history as an independent. Meanwhile, Navy joined the AAC and is in its worst five-year period in 20-plus years. Army has games scheduled through 2032. This seems like a dumb move. Thoughts? — Lukas F.

"It’s an understandable question, Lukas, and it’s one reason Army has stayed a football independent after the forgettable Conference USA run from 1998-2004. The latest on Army-AAC is this: Army football home games are owned by CBS through 2028, and the Black Knights have a large amount of their schedule set through 2032. In order to join the AAC, whether that’s 2024 or 2025, ESPN, CBS, Army and the AAC need to come to some sort of agreement on the games. The Army-Navy game will remain a nonconference matchup on CBS, although the network is concerned about the (rare) possibility of an Army-Navy AAC championship game the week prior on ESPN.

Army must make good on the many future games it would have to cancel. It’s possible multiple teams whose Army games get canceled could fill the spot with each other. It’s a process that still may take a few weeks, but there is a soft deadline, so this should be figured out in the next couple of weeks, or a move could get pushed to 2025, if it happens at all.

As for the why, it’s largely about where college football is going, with scheduling and an expanded College Football Playoff. Army has been very clear with its scheduling in recent years: It plays two service academy games, two FCS games, at least two Power 5 games (often the ACC) and fills out the rest with Group of 5 games. But with Power 5 conferences growing and likely moving toward more conference games, that squeezes Army’s opportunity for games. Conference USA adding Liberty and New Mexico State took two independents off the board. Notre Dame made its ACC partnership in large part just so it could fill out a schedule.

College football never has been more reliant on conferences. They hold the power, from the CFP to rules legislation to TV contracts. The AAC has an ESPN deal through 2031-32. In this uncertain TV world, that security is worth a lot."

[WrekDivr]

One aspect of the AAC TV rights deal that I don’t understand and that seems hard to get info on is that ESPN has the rights to the AAC, but Navy games are on CBS Sports.

[wpgrad]

The AAC thing is making a decision from a position of weakness, thinking about the what if's

Well.....what is the MAC won't play us?

uhhhh....what if the SEC goes to 9 games in conference.

etc etc etc

It is a dumb decision, and we will regret being in a conference. 8 conference games, 2 games against AF and Navy...and of course a home FCS each year.

And sl now we have a grand total of 1 game per year flexibility.

Stupid is as stupid does

[westcoastarmyfan]

WrekDivr posted
"One aspect of the AAC TV rights deal that I don’t understand and that seems hard to get info on is that ESPN has the rights to the AAC, but Navy games are on CBS Sports."

I thought that years ago CBS had wanted to have all the SAs under their contract as part of the Army Navy game package, the game that generates premium ad $$$ for them. They promised the academies that almost all of their home games would be on Saturday, instead of a week night. Mtn West as always had their contract with ESPN, but AF still has a separate contract with CBS apart from ESPN.

https://www.foxsports.com/stories/colle ... rough-2027

[RABBLE]

The AAC thing is making a decision from a position of weakness, thinking about the what if's

Well.....what is the MAC won't play us?

uhhhh....what if the SEC goes to 9 games in conference.

etc etc etc

It is a dumb decision, and we will regret being in a conference. 8 conference games, 2 games against AF and Navy...and of course a home FCS each year.

And sl now we have a grand total of 1 game per year flexibility.

Stupid is as stupid does

The AAC does not care about us. I STILL like the idea of flexibility and that is the idea that you are your own boss as to who you play, when you play. The idea of being left out is just plain stupid. What team in the country would not play us even if they only had one slot open and that includes those teams at the very top year after year. We could retain the mix of 4-4-4 ( tough to beat, toss -up and should win) on schedules.
Why would they find an opening for us? The simple reason that most schools would display their pride for their country. That alone would be a terrific asset to both an opponent and ourselves.
Another reason for not wanting to join a conference is quite frankly. the teams now in that league suck.
Would we draw anyone to the academy like a North Texas, Alabama Birmingham, Memphis and a directional Florida team? Hell, the last time we tried that was when we were in the C-USA disaster.
Fool us once but please don't fool us twice.
So you win the conference once in a moon, so what? You get a shiny trophy that will sit in a trophy case a few feet from the Womens 1990 volleyball trophy or whatever year they might have won the thing.
I'm talking about the ONLY trophy that REALLY means a damn thing and that is the big one sitting in front of Coach Monkens office some years, THE CIC TROPHY. You win the AAC trophy, that only means you beat some lesser-lites from mostly the South. Tough to get use to that scenario to my way of thinking. Playing the same teams year after year will get boring and getting bored means people will eventually get tired of it and will want to change and get out of the AAC and go indy again. Then you have to pay a hefty exit fee to get out and by that time our coach will be retired, our AD will leave for greener pastures but above all, the fans will the only one left to see another reset of the football program.
I'll be long dead so the next generation will be stuck with the problems of the future.
My advice-- Stay where you are and, enjoy the ride and our already set schedules.
You want to play a Michigan, an Oklahoma, a Duke or a Wake Forest or even a Citadel or VMI if you wish once in awhile, you will be able to but joining a conference, the ability to be flexible will be gone as you sign a conference contract
Be all you can be as they say. Be your oun boss, not subject to some damn league president, erly on your graduates for funding (they do a fantastic job in so doing), stay calm, cool and collected. Do not fight a trend and it is a trend.We will do just fine and we will ALWAYS be able to schedule who we want, when we want.
Why? The simple reason that we are ARMY with a tradition no one can beat.

[palidog]

The problem is that Army is going to have to dumb down its schedule even more since the P5 schools will be less likely to play us because of their own scheduling guidelines. The MAC has pretty much cut us off and that means we are left with Conf. USA, AAC and Sun Belt teams to fill our schedule, plus Navy, Air Force, the one or TWO FCS teams and the one game at some p5 powerhouse, which may go away. Some argue that it will get pretty boring playing the same old teams every year, but that is what everyone else does. Some p5 leagues have nine league games....they play many of the same teams year in and year out. It works for them and many are new opponents. I have little doubt that UCONN and UMASS are also headed to the AAC....18 teams means you only play 45% of them a year....
The bottom line is that Army's home slate is going to get much worse as time goes on. That means less people in the stands and, eventually, less TV revenue when the CBS deal gets renewed and they realize that no one cares about Army playing Morgan State and Delaware State. The AAC deal is the best we can hope for. Get the best deal we can from the AAC, including CBS money for home games, Take it, recruit better and build a program like Air Force.