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Navy football now has a home.

It only took 135 years.

The program has played as an independent since 1879 but it officially became a member of the American Athletic Conference on Wednesday as the league’s 12th football-playing member, allowing the conference to hold a championship game.

Navy, with its tradition and rich history, not to mention back-to-back bowl wins, will be a part of the AAC West Division. UConn is in the East Division.

Navy will remain in the Patriot League for other sports.

“We are very excited about joining the American Athletic Conference and playing in the West Division,” Navy director of athletics Chet Gladchuk said in a press release. “The programs at Houston, Memphis, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa are run in a very similar manner as ours and we feel that we can be competitive in that division and compete for a championship. We not only look forward to playing the teams in the West, but the schools in the East as well. Facing UCF, Cincinnati, UConn, East Carolina, USF and Temple will provide great challenges to us, and it is one of the reasons we joined the conference.

“Independence had become outdated for the Naval Academy. Scheduling and TV contracts were being monopolized by the conferences and we felt that we had to join a conference in order to be able to maintain the stature we’ve enjoyed for so many years.”

Steeped in tradition, Navy has produced a U.S. president (Jimmy Carter) and a Super Bowl-winning quarterback (Roger Staubach). Navy’s football history includes two Heisman Trophy winners — Staubach and Joe Bellino — and 23 consensus All-America selections. Staubach, after serving in the Navy, had a great career with the Dallas Cowboys and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He won two Super Bowls with the Cowboys.

Talks with Navy began when many AAC teams were still in the Big East for football and it had a built-in tie-in to a Bowl Championship Series. The BCS is now over. The playoff system went into effect last season. It’s not impossible for an AAC team to qualify but as a non-Power Five conference team it won’t be easy, either. Navy was awarded a share of the 1926 national championship after a 9-0-1 season. The Midshipmen were declared tri-champs with Stanford (10-0-1) and Alabama (9-0-1).

Still, for Navy, the move made sense either way with college football’s landscape already having gone through dramatic changes in conference affiliation. Although Notre Dame still identifies as an independent, one of only three now along with BYU and Army, the Fighting Irish have hitched their wagon to the ACC, playing a certain amount of games against ACC teams. And like Notre Dame, Navy carries a national audience and coach Ken Niumatalolo’s option offense can rock against anybody.

“Joining the American Athletic Conference has given us another goal,” Niumatalolo said of Navy, which has had one losing season since 2004. “Now, not only do we have the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy to play for, but a conference championship as well. I do know there are very good football teams in this league and it’s going to be a huge challenge for our program.”

UConn will host the Midshipmen Sept. 26 for the first time since a 41-17 pelting of the Huskies at Rentschler Field in 2006. There are some interesting connections involving Connecticut and Navy: five of the first 10 football coaches (from 1893-1903) were from Yale, where they learned the game under Walter Camp. Only one (Bill Armstrong from Old Saybrook) lasted more than one year. Rick Lantz, a New Britain native and a 1963 grad of Central Connecticut, stepped in as interim head coach late in the 2001 season after Charlie Weatherbie was fired. Lantz, who had been the defensive coordinator, went 0-3 and was not retained as coach. He was inducted into the CCSU Hall of Fame in 1999.

“As I have said on many occasions, the Midshipmen represent the best this country has to offer,” said AAC commissioner Mike Aresco, a Middletown native. “We are proud and grateful for the service they render to our country, and we are privileged to have them in our conference.

Navy comes to the AAC with a 671-539-57 record and a 9-10 record in bowl games, including wins in its last two, a 17-16 Poinsettia Bowl win against San Diego last season and a 24-6 Armed Forces Bowl win against Middle Tennessee State in 2013.