HEADLINE

Report: Army, AAC have preliminary membership talk

Field Level Media

September 02, 2023 at 6:45 pm.

Officials with the American Athletic Conference have discussed the possibility of Army joining the conference, with the military academy the AAC’s top choice for expansion, ESPN reported Saturday.

The AAC is interested in adding a 14th member after SMU announced Friday it was departing for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ESPN report said that if Army joins the AAC, it would be as a football-only school. Navy already has that arrangement with the conference.

AAC commissioner Mike Aresco has had a preliminary discussion about the possibility of membership with Army athletic director Mike Buddie, per the report, but a decision is not expected in the coming days.

In the shifting college football landscape, the ACC added SMU, Cal and Stanford on Friday. The latter two are departing the decimated Pac-12, a historic conference that is likely to disband after eight schools recently announced they are switching leagues in 2024.

Southern California and UCLA announced their moves to the Big Ten, effective in 2024, last summer. Oregon State and Washington State are the only remaining conference members, and it is believed they are candidates to move to the Mountain West Conference.

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