| 7/1/2024 | General IRVING, Texas – With the turning of the calendar to July, the American Athletic Conference officially welcomes Army West Point to its football ranks. Army West Point’s legendary football program, which has won five national championships and produced three Heisman Trophy winners and multiple consensus All-America selections and College Football Hall of Fame inductees, begins competition in The American for the 2024 season. Army’s football pedigree traces its roots to 1890, when Army and Navy played the first game in what has become one of the best rivalries in all of sports. The Black Knights won three consecutive national championships from 1944-46 under legendary head coach Red Blaik and saw Doc Blanchard (1945), Glenn Davis (1946) and Pete Dawkins (1958) win the Heisman Trophy. Army has enjoyed a recent resurgence under 10th-year head coach Jeff Monken, who led Army to a program-record 11 wins in 2018, when the Black Knights finished the season ranked No. 19, and has delivered four bowl victories to West Point, the most of any coach in program history. Army plays its home games at storied Michie Stadium, which has been cited by Sports Illustrated as one of the great sports venues in the United States. The addition of Army to The American gives the conference an institutional presence in five of the top 10, eight of the top 25 and 13 of the top 51 Nielsen media markets. Army is located in the No. 1-rated New York DMA.The annual Army-Navy Game presented by USAA will not be counted as a conference game as the rights remain with both institutions. Army and Navy would meet in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game, however, if both teams qualify. |
