The American Athletic Conference will remain at 14 teams for football next season after adding another new member.
AAC presidents voted on Tuesday night to accept Army into the conference as a football-only member beginning in 2024-25, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reports.
Navy is already a member of the AAC, but Army joining the conference will not impact the annual rivalry game between the two schools. Army and Navy will continue to play their rivalry game on the traditional date of the second weekend in December. That game will not count toward the AAC standings, and the two teams will not play during the regular season.
The AAC Championship and other conference championships take place the weekend before the Army-Navy game. Should Army and Navy finish as the top two teams in the regular-season AAC standings, they will play in the conference championship game and then in their annual rivalry game the following week.
SMU announced last month that it is leaving the AAC to join the ACC beginning next season. Army then entered into discussions about joining the AAC, with the conference wanting to remain at 14 teams.
Cincinnati, Houston and UCF have all left the AAC for the Big 12. The conference then added Conference USA schools Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA.
There had been talk of the AAC trying to add Oregon State and Washington State, which are the only two remaining members of the Pac-12. For now, it sounds like those two schools will remain a two-team conference.
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