The Army Black Knights are set to join the American Athletic Conference in 2024 after playing 19 seasons as a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Independent.
Due to playing as an Independent, the Black Knights had to schedule 12 games each season as opposed to only three or four as a member of a conference. With eight American Athletic Conference games per season, Army will need only four non-conference opponents per year and will have to cancel over 30 future contests.
Fans of the annual battle for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy can rest easy, however, as Army will continue to play both of its service academy rivals, Air Force and Navy. Even though Navy is also a member of The American, the annual Army-Navy Game will be considered a non-conference contest each season. The two teams will not play a matchup that will count in the conference standings, but they could meet in the American Football Championship Game and then play the Army-Navy Game a week later.
With contests against Air Force and Navy cemented on Army’s non-conference schedule, the Black Knights will have only two openings per season.
Which previously scheduled non-conference games will Army retain? The answer to that question is not known yet, but the school has initiated the process of canceling games based on public reports and public records searches conducted by FBSchedules.com.
Last month on the ASOR Football Podcast, Liberty athletics director Ian McCaw announced that its future home-and-home series with Army was “going off (the schedule)” due to Army’s move into a conference. Those games were scheduled for 2025 in Lynchburg, Va., and 2026 in West Point, N.Y.
On Thursday, the Ball State Cardinals officially announced that their home contest against Army in 2024 had been canceled. That matchup was scheduled for Aug. 31, 2024 in Muncie, Ind.
According to a public records request, FBSchedules.com has learned that Army has also canceled its future home-and-home series with the Georgia Southern Eagles. The Black Knights were scheduled to visit Statesboro, Ga., in 2030 before hosting the Eagles in West Point in 2031.
That’s five games down, stay tuned for more.
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