The Schedule is out

[RABBLE]

Rab, just don’t get your concern here. Yes, we are in a league and will be playing teams in that league, but there are currently 12 other teams (excluding Navy as that is non-conference) we could play. We play 8 of them this year. Assuming an even rotation, we would play 4 new teams next year and play 4 teams for the second time. By the end of the 3rd year, we would have played all teams twice. Assuming once at home and once away, you would see each team at Michie once every 3 years. That just doesn’t sound like playing the same guys over and over to me. They might not be teams you like, but it’s not the same guys every year.

If you look at our schedule over the last 5 years, we have played 10 teams multiple times: UTSA (4), UMass (4), ULM (3), Georgia State (3), Coastal Carolina (2), Troy (2), Tulane (2), UConn (2), Wake Forest (2), and Western Kentucky (2).

If those games are in the same 8 slots that the AAC is now filling each year (excludes Navy, AF, FCS, “Big Guys”), we have filled 26 of 40 slots with teams we played multiple times.

If we regret our decision to join a conference, it won’t be because we play the same guys every year.

True, but over time, playing even a rotation of teams in your conference will become the same old, same old.
If our fan base likes this, that is fine but to me playing teams from across the nation would be more exciting with expectation of new vistas to explore and teams to face.
For my 7 decades of travel to see the team play from Hawai'i to Boston, to the south, southwest and far west was always the highlight of my sports interest. Just to see other stadiums as a visitor, rooting the Army team on was the best. It gave me an even greater love for the college game itself.
I feel in a sense, joining a league will restrict my chances of traveling the nation at least on an annual basis. My wife and I always worked a vacation around these trips. Great fun.
Being nostalgic and an old man who can still do it, I feel defeated in my effort to see quality games on the other guys turf plus my home season ticket holder games at Michie. Personally, I don't like this move for what I just said but them again, I don't and never did have a dog in this fight. It is what other people say it is. guess that is all I can say on this. Still , I'm disapointed.

[LoneStarPhan]

I learned the mascots of many college teams from the 1951 Topps college football collector cards. This set of cards had a photo of a college football player and listed his name, position, and college mascot listed on the front. On the reverse, there was a brief bio of the player and then a question asking the college or university. Card number 23 was Jim Prewett, Tackle (Golden Hurricane). On the reverse was the question: Which team in Oklahoma is known as the "Golden Hurricanes"? Scratch and match your answer. About half of the back of the card was covered with the typical silver that is common on scratch off cards. When this was scratched off, there was the answer (University of Tulsa) and a picture of a building from the university. A quick google search (1951 Topps college football card #23) will locate photos of this card. Back then, Tulsa was in the Missouri Valley Conference.

I'm pretty sure there were no service academy players in the set.

[rog66]

The schedule is what it is. Of course, I was not pleased with this conference affiliation much at all. We are faced with playing the majority of our schedule playing the same teams over and over again. After awhile , this exercise will become boring and the excitement of playing new teams at different vistas on a yearly basis will become mostly unenjoyable to many of us.
In my opinion only, these schedules will become repetitive and not fan friendly.
Since today, college football is all about the money and TV deals. West Point will make money and that all counts in the scheme of things these days but for the fans, a steady diet of Birmingham, Tulsa and Charlotte and the other conference teams makes little enthusiasm and expectation for me. But the academy obviously cares little for the fans anymore but just the bottom line.
After a year or three, attendance will drop , Michie will be half empty and the interest will drop. We build a new east stand with nobody sitting in those seats except the cadets and the hefty priced upstairs loge boxes will be empty.
Just my little forecast which means nothing and something I wont live long enough to see at my age but that fact will never take away the memories I have of the great years watching the team play other teams from around the nation, from Hawai'i to Boston. Remember , we once were AMERICA'S TEAM. From now on, we are becoming another AAC MEMBER. That is what MONEY represents.
Army Football was an amazing institution, a culture and a "home base" for me of sorts.
With this move guys, you tell me what it is from now on.

Rabble, I'm with you 100%, I would have more respect the administration if they just said "It's all about the money end of story". When you make a pack with the devil for 35 million to payoff the future Army football contracts you get what you deserve. When Navy's AD Gladchuk is begging Army to join the AAC after years of talking down the Army football program as total garbage, well you know the AAC hit rock bottom. Good luck trying to get out of this conference financially. The realignment of college football is far from over and there will be more opportunities to join conferences other than the AAC in the near future.

[LoneStarPhan]

Of course, money is a big concern for the program. As much as we might want things to not change, college football has changed and is continuing to change. I certainly do not have the knowledge to second guess the folks who make the decision to join the AAC. There are very few independent teams left and more and more conferences are limiting out-of-conference games. I am not saying that Army could not have put together a schedule as an independent, but the future of TV money probably was in doubt if not tied to a conference TV deal.

If they concluded that joining a conference was beneficial, I don't think they could have done better than joining the AAC.