Army coach cites scheduling, playoff as reasons for joining AAC

One of the last remaining independent FBS football programs is now part of the Group of Five conference ecosystem. Army was introduced at American Athletic Conference media days for the first time Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, where coach Jeff Monken explained that the realities of scheduling and recruiting led the program to leave behind its independent label to keep up with the rest of college football. "Scheduling has become a real challenge and a lot of that is driven because of the changes in college football, the realignments of the major conferences, and as those teams are changing conferences, their schedules have to change and there's a huge trickle-down effect," Monken said. "Whether it's those teams that are sending us a letter saying we need to get out of this game because we're changing conferences, or other teams that say we had a schedule change because of another opponent, we have to cancel our game or change our game. It just became very challenging to put a schedule together." Despite their scheduling challenges, the Black Knights have finished below .500 just once in the past eight seasons against good schedules. But outside of the Armed Forces Bowl, Army has been invited to just two bowl games since 1997 and won just one, the 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl, in a 38-31 overtime victory over North Texas. By joining a conference for the first time since a 1998-2004 stint in Conference USA, Army opens up the possibility -- however faint -- that it can make the College Football Playoff. Starting this year, the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion will receive an automatic bid to the 12-team playoff field. "I think it's important that if we're going to compete at the FBS level, that there is a pathway to the playoff," Monken said. "I'm not delusional ... It will be tremendously challenging for us to win a game in this league, but to not be able to say we've got a pathway, particularly in recruiting, it just felt like we needed to be in the position to do that." Army received one vote to win the conference in the AAC media poll published Tuesday. Memphis was voted as the favorite, while Army came in fifth of 14 teams. --Field Level Media