Last Updated: October 26, 2023, 01:30 IST
The American Athletic Conference introduced Wednesday it’s including Army as a soccer-solely member beginning in 2024.
“We are honored to welcome Army to the American Athletic Conference,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco mentioned in a press release. “Army’s football program has an iconic national brand with a legacy of success that spans more than a century and is a perfect fit with our conference.”
Army will substitute SMU, which is shifting to the Atlantic Coast Conference, to maintain the American a 14-staff soccer league. The addition places Army and Navy soccer in the identical convention. But their conventional, finish-of-the-season, standalone matchup will remain a nonconference game so it may be performed after convention championships.
Army largely competes in the Patriot League, but it surely has been an impartial in soccer for a lot of the program’s existence. The Black Knights competed in Conference USA from 1998 to 2004 and by no means received greater than three soccer video games in a season.
Army’s soccer historical past consists of two nationwide championships and three Heisman Trophy winners in the Nineteen Forties and Nineteen Fifties.
Army’s time in Conference USA was the beginning of a protracted down interval for this system that included a 14-game dropping streak to Navy.
Under coach Jeff Monken, the Army has discovered extra constant success. The Black Knights have 5 bowl appearances and two double-digit victory seasons since 2016. They are additionally 5-2 in the final seven video games in opposition to Navy.
This season, Army is 2-5.
___
Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and pay attention at http://www.appodcasts.com. Get alerts on the most recent AP Top 25 ballot all through the season. Sign up right here.
___
AP faculty soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
