After a grueling regular season campaign for West Point’s Black Knights, Army will face Tulane in the American Athletic Conference Championship Game on Friday, December 6th.
It has been one of Army football’s greatest seasons to this point. This 2024 campaign for the Black Knights can become something truly extraordinary with a victory against a frequent foe on Friday night.
Before the 8:00 pm kickoff, though, background information for both conference rivals is crucial. Here’s what you need to know for Army vs Tulane.
Army is currently ranked No. 24 in the latest AP poll. They are 10-1, and they’re one of just 18 FBS teams to win 10 or more games this year. West Point has been ranked as high as 16th this season, and they have remained in the AP poll since October 13th.
Due to having a better conference record than Tulane – the latter still finished with a gaudy 7-1 mark in conference games – Army will have home field advantage. The Black Knights finished with a perfect 8-0 record in AAC games. Army has not lost at home since October of 2023.
Tulane has a record of 32-8 since 2022. Only three other teams – Georgia, Michigan, and Oregon – have won more games in that time span.
The Crescent City’s Green Wave were also liked by the AP this season, beginning with a No. 25 ranking in the November 10th poll. They ascended to No. 18 right before Thanksgiving, but then fell out of the Top 25 after a loss to Memphis.
Tulane is stewarded by first-year head coach Jon Sumrall, who went 23-4 as the sideline boss for Troy from 2022-2023 and won two consecutive Sun Belt conference championships. He was hired back in December of last year, and replaced Willie Fritz, who took the head coaching job at Houston.
Although the program has a new sideline boss, Tulane is already quite familiar with playing for conference championships. This is the third straight AAC Championship Game appearance for the Green Wave. They won in 2022 against UCF and lost to SMU a year ago.
The trifecta of conference title bouts is not all that Tulane has accomplished in the last three years, either. They defeated 10th-ranked USC in the Cotton Bowl Classic to conclude their 2022 season.
Tulane lost to Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl last year, but still won 11 games. The program attained consecutive ten-win seasons for the first time in school history.
The cadets last played against Tulane in 2020, and they have faced each other four times in the Monken era. While both programs are no strangers to each other, there is a stark contrast between the new conference rivals – both schematically and historically.
To extrapolate on that – Army and Tulane have played each other 23 times. Tulane holds a 13-9-1 edge in the series. Six of those games have been played since 2010.
Army has not defeated the Green Wave since 2011. Their last four meetings with Tulane have all been increasingly lopsided, although the 2015 and 2017 games were decided by a single possession.
The 2020 game, as previously mentioned, is the most recent encounter between the two. Army lost by a 38-12 score.
Viewing this upcoming conference championship through a historical lens is certainly beneficial to curious fans. It lends perspective, and it also shows how Army has fared against a rising program.
At the end of the day, however, none of the previous 23 games have any bearing on this matchup. Virtually none of the players on either team’s roster in 2020 are there now, and the stakes for this game dwarf all of their previous contests.
When Jeff Monken was hired in December 2013, he had multiple objectives as Army’s 37th head coach. Those objectives have since become a list of annual program expectations.
The objectives included snapping an ignominious losing streak against Navy, win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, return Army to the national spotlight, and get back to a bowl game.
To attain all of those objectives, West Point’s gridiron program had to embrace some changes that initially raised some eyebrows.
From dietary and nutritional changes to far more rigorous training camps for the players, Jeff Monken’s first step in restoring the glory days of Army football was to make the cadets bigger and tougher. That is exactly what he has done.
To the astonishment of few, Jeff Monken’s plan took time to come to fruition. It was not until 2016 when Army finally defeated Navy for the first time since 2001. The following year, Army won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy for the first time since 1996.
Since then, only 17 other FBS teams have won more games than Army. During that same time period, the Black Knights are 45-10 in home games, better than all but 14 Division I programs.
Jeff Monken’s achievements with Army hardly stop there. Monken and his players have won the coveted Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy four times since 2017. They could very well win it for a fifth time in eight seasons when they play Navy on Saturday, December 14th.
Monken has 80 wins under his belt at West Point, too. Only Earl “Red” Blaik has more victories with Army. Simply put, Army football has produced its first sustained golden age since the beginning of the Cold War.
Army had fallen on hard times in 2022 and 2023, at least by their standards.
West Point’s previous two seasons were not devoid of triumph. After all, they had beaten Navy in both of those years, and they won the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy last year. But there were some glaring omissions.
After finishing 44-20 from 2017-2021, Army nosedived to a 12-12 mark from 2022-2023. They had lost to inferior programs like Massachusetts and Louisiana-Monroe. They did not appear in a bowl game.
Given all of that, anyone who claimed that Army would compete for a conference championship and be in the Associated Press Top 25 this year would be given some odd glances.
11 games into this season, that is exactly what has happened. Army started the season 9-0, its best start to a season since 1996. Monken and Co. were ranked 16th in the AP poll. They are 10-1 – and this is just the fourth 10-win season in academy history.
Despite the unblemished 9-0 record at the time, there were some setbacks for Army. One of those setbacks pertained to the health of quarterback Bryson Daily.
After weeks of secrecy, it was revealed that Daily had sustained an infection in his foot. He was unable to put his foot in a shoe and missed the game against Air Force.
Daily returned for the game against North Texas; he had a career-high 36 carries for 153 yards in a 14-3 win. He and his teammates faced their ultimate challenge against historic rival Notre Dame but were dealt a crushing loss at Yankee Stadium.
Following their first loss of the season, the Black Knights rebounded back this past Saturday afternoon in their final regular season game. Against UTSA, Daily relied more on his right arm than his legs.
Army has never won a conference championship. Of course, the academy did not compete in any conferences for 20 years, which makes this season all the more impressive.
Not many FBS teams can claim that they have more at stake after a conference title game. Army is one of the few teams that can make that claim.
After the conference title game, the Black Knights will face Navy for the 125th time – and the matchup will fittingly be held at Northwest Stadium, 15 miles from the White House.
Following the Navy game, Jeff Monken and his players will compete in a bowl game for the first time since 2021. Army will have access to more bowl games since they are now in a conference.
It could be the usual offering – the Military or Armed Forces Bowls. Army could also find itself in the Independence Bowl, the Fenway Bowl, the Birmingham Bowl, or the Gasparilla Bowl. Other options remain as well.
Like Army and Jeff Monken have always done, though, they are only looking at the next game. After the final whistle, Army could have another unprecedented feat checked off on the list.
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