College football expansion: 1 new school in realignment talks, per reports
The college football conference realignment process could pick up again in the near future as the U.S. Military Academy has been in conversation with the American Athletic Conference about possibly including the Army football team as a member of that league, according to multiple reports.
Those talks are described as positive with mutual interest coming from both sides about the possible merger, and a deal could be finalized in the next few weeks.
The AAC is looking to plug in a new member for football after the bombshell announcement that SMU will leave the conference to join the ACC, which will also take Stanford and Cal starting in the 2024 football season.
Army has been an independent in football since it left Conference USA in 2004, but has been in the AAC's sights as a potential future member owing to its reputation as a military academy. Navy, Army's principal rival, is a member of the AAC.
The most important thing for Army from a football perspective would be to preserve its long-time rivalry with Navy and to play the Midshipmen in their final regular season game every year, a date typically held open in early December solely for that game after the rest of the college football season concludes.
It is believed that the Army vs. Navy game would be a non-conference game even if the Black Knights were to join the AAC.
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