SAD DAY

[RABBLE]

July 1, 2024.

It is a sad day for me s Army is now an official member of the American Athletic Conference.
It will not be the same for me as an 8-decade fan of Army Football.
No longer will we play a truly national schedule as America's team. We are now relagated to playing a set schedule of 8 conference wana- bee teams who never were , are not now and forever will never be.
What happened to this program where we played a truly balanced schedule of a few fairly easy teams, teams with we could compete with on a yearly basis and a couple truly major teams where we would be really challenged? Where are the east's regional teams that we built a rivalry of sorts who would attract a good crowd to Michie Stadium? Where are those teams we always played that our fan base could look forward to seeing both home and away where a simple fan could travel to without being overwhelmed just to travel to a game or two?
Gone, completely gone and now forgotten. Oh, sure catch it on TV but where does that leave many of us who always enjoyed the stadium playing a team you knew for years and not now a team where you do no not even where the school is located and could really care less?
Gone are the days of local rivalries, sitting in the stands on a a cool, crisp autumnal day playing a team a couple hundred miles down the road? What excitement, what a pleasure !!
Sure, we play Navy and Air Force alright and that is great. Throw in a Temple once every two years and what is left of any regional rivalry from our neck of the woods?
To me, a steady diet of Tulsa, UAB, FAU and the like just does not cut it for me. We had that in the old C-USA and it was not good then like it will not be today with this lineup of teams. It will soon be the same old, same old schedule year after year soon prompting a state of boredom for most of our fans.
So we beat a Florida Atlantic or a Tulsa. So what? That will never replace the lineup of teams from the Big 10 or the ACC that we used to play on occasion.
To me, we sold our soul to the company store for the dollars it might bring. But then again, so what? Today, it's the dollars that count, not the tradition of the game itself.
Truly, as I said before, it is a sad day for me.












We sold our

[wpgrad]

Agree completely Rab. Our own athletic Director said it was a move we “had to make” because of scheduling. And then within two weeks, the same AD did a podcast where he said we had games fully scheduled thry 2032. So which one is it? I think it was a lazy move on army part to make things easier, and, in the process, they messed up the army navy game, and will eventually be forced to move that game into November.

I am almost secretly rooting we win the conference, get linedup at CFP 12-person team…then lose to navy…just to show how stupid this move was planned out

As I’ve said before. 99% of army fans dont even know tulsa or fau’s mascot

[ArmyOline76]

Golden Hurricane and Owls...

[wpgrad]

Golden Hurricane and Owls...

behold, the 1%-er

[armyftball]

They didnt learn from the past.

Leaving Conf USA was terrific.

The fixing of an error.

Now, round 2.

[gabn92]

Rabble…your memory of a “steady diet of Big 10 and ACC teams” on the schedule is skippng a few decades of Army football history. The lineup in the AAC isn’t replacing those teams…we’re just swapping Ga Stare for UAB and Coastal Carolina for ECU.

There are pros and cons to joining the AAC, but losing some mythical schedule of big time football teams on the Army schedule is just not a factual problem with joining the conference. The quality of opponents will be the same as what we’ve seen on Army’s schedule for the last 30-40 years. With the one positive that the days of 2 I-AA teams on the schedule in a season are probably over

[neumanna1]

Rabble…your memory of a “steady diet of Big 10 and ACC teams” on the schedule is skippng a few decades of Army football history. The lineup in the AAC isn’t replacing those teams…we’re just swapping Ga Stare for UAB and Coastal Carolina for ECU.

There are pros and cons to joining the AAC, but losing some mythical schedule of big time football teams on the Army schedule is just not a factual problem with joining the conference. The quality of opponents will be the same as what we’ve seen on Army’s schedule for the last 30-40 years. With the one positive that the days of 2 I-AA teams on the schedule in a season are probably over

Copying your post from back in December on another thread but I think it’s the best analysis of this particular argument:

……..

For those complaining about the home slate of games the AAC provides, your argument would hold more water if past home slates were vastly superior...but looking back at them, I just don't see much difference or drop-off in quality.

To refresh your memory, here are the home games from the Monken era:

2014: Buffalo, Ball St, Rice, AF, UCONN, Fordham (0 P5 home games)
2015: Fordham, Wake Forest, Duke, Tulane, Rutgers (this year did have 2 P5 home games...don't think Rutgers was Big 10 in 2015 yet)
2016: Rice, Lafayette, North Texas AF, Morgan State
2017: Fordham, Buffalo, UTEP, Eastern Michigan, Temple, Duke (1 P5 home game)
2018: Liberty, U Hawaii, San Jose St, Miami (OH), AF, Lafayette, Colgate (0 P5 home games)
2019: Rice, Morgan St, Tulane, San Jose St, UMASS, VMI (0 P5 home games)
2020: Middle Tenn St U, UL Monroe, Abilene Christian, Citadel, Mercer, Ga Southern, AF (Navy was home too...but that was COVID year) (0 P5 home games)
2021: Western KY U, UCONN, Miami (OH), Wake Forest, Bucknell, UMASS (1 P5 home game)
2022: UTSA, Villanova, Ga St, Colgate, UL Monroe, UCONN (0 P5 home games)
2023: Delaware St, Boston College, Troy, UMASS, Holy Cross, Coastal Car (1 P5 home game)

So, out of the past 10 seasons, we've had a grand total of 4 of them where we hosted a P5 team at Michie and only 1 of those seasons where we hosted 2 (back in 2015 with WF and Duke).

[rog66]

July 1, 2024.

It is a sad day for me s Army is now an official member of the American Athletic Conference.
It will not be the same for me as an 8-decade fan of Army Football.
No longer will we play a truly national schedule as America's team. We are now relagated to playing a set schedule of 8 conference wana- bee teams who never were , are not now and forever will never be.
What happened to this program where we played a truly balanced schedule of a few fairly easy teams, teams with we could compete with on a yearly basis and a couple truly major teams where we would be really challenged? Where are the east's regional teams that we built a rivalry of sorts who would attract a good crowd to Michie Stadium? Where are those teams we always played that our fan base could look forward to seeing both home and away where a simple fan could travel to without being overwhelmed just to travel to a game or two?
Gone, completely gone and now forgotten. Oh, sure catch it on TV but where does that leave many of us who always enjoyed the stadium playing a team you knew for years and not now a team where you do no not even where the school is located and could really care less?
Gone are the days of local rivalries, sitting in the stands on a a cool, crisp autumnal day playing a team a couple hundred miles down the road? What excitement, what a pleasure !!
Sure, we play Navy and Air Force alright and that is great. Throw in a Temple once every two years and what is left of any regional rivalry from our neck of the woods?
To me, a steady diet of Tulsa, UAB, FAU and the like just does not cut it for me. We had that in the old C-USA and it was not good then like it will not be today with this lineup of teams. It will soon be the same old, same old schedule year after year soon prompting a state of boredom for most of our fans.
So we beat a Florida Atlantic or a Tulsa. So what? That will never replace the lineup of teams from the Big 10 or the ACC that we used to play on occasion.
To me, we sold our soul to the company store for the dollars it might bring. But then again, so what? Today, it's the dollars that count, not the tradition of the game itself.
Truly, as I said before, it is a sad day for me.












We sold our

Completely agree 100% we put ourselves in a bottom feeder G-5 conference with little of any hope of playing a P5 team ever again, unless it's ND. Talk about drumming the Army football program into irrelevance for the sake of a pile money. Remember when Navy was promised all these great things that would happen if they joined the AAC? None of them materialized and after having a couple of decent years at the beginning of the AAC Navy's football program has done nothing but flounder at the bottom of in division 1A. Can't wait to see the multimillion-dollar price tag both Army & Navy will have to pay to get out of the AAC. That should do wonders for their football programs! Rabble, I agree it's sad day for an Army football program with plenty history that has been thrown into the dustbin and replaced by the new modern era.

[gabn92]

Copying your post from back in December on another thread but I think it’s the best analysis of this particular argument:

I didn't have time to go back further with that analysis, but don't think it would be any different looking at Army football schedules through the Berry to Ellerson years, the CUSA years. I personally remember the Young and Sutton years and know those schedules resemble what we've seen recently as well...with more Ivy League and FCS teams than what we play currently.

I think you'd have to go back to the 70's or perhaps very early 80's to see any schedules like Rabble is recalling, with "big time" teams coming to Michie on a regular basis and the bulk of the schedule against those bigger schools. We also had a lot of losing years in that timeframe as Army was adjusting from the glory years of Army football to the realities of modern football and the fact that Army was no longer a national football power.

We can continue to beat the dead horse of conference membership for Army on the board for those that want to go there, but please let's stop pretending the AAC is somehow wrecking Army's schedule with inferior teams. It's simply not a valid argument.

[wpgrad]

You are arguing that the move to AAC doesn't change the quality of our opponents, and I agree with you.

However, the bigger problem is that the AAC move will restrict WHERE these same quality schools are located. We no longer play anywhere on the west coast (eg, san jose state). We no longer play in our number 1 hot bed, Georgia. We don't play in michigan. We don't play in ohio.

The quality of opponent is the same...very true...but we no longer have the diversity of opponents in a variety of geographic locations. And that, in my opinion, will hurt recruiting.

This AAC move was a lazy act by our AD and reeks of the CUSA abomination from 20 years ago.