One of the last remaining independent FBS football programs is now part of the Group of Five conference ecosystem.Army was introduced at American Athletic Conference media days for the first time Tuesday in Arlington, Texas, where coach Jeff Monken explained that the realities of scheduling and recruiting led the program to leave behind its independent label to keep up with the rest of college football.”Scheduling has become a real challenge and a lot of that is driven because of the changes in college football, the realignments of the major conferences, and as those teams are changing conferences, their schedules have to change and there’s a huge trickle-down effect,” Monken said.”Whether it’s those teams that are sending us a letter saying we need to get out of this game because we’re changing conferences, or other teams that say we had a schedule change because of another opponent, we have to cancel our game or change our game. It just became very challenging to put a schedule together.”Despite their scheduling challenges, the Black Knights have finished below .500 just once in the past eight seasons against good schedules. But outside of the Armed Forces Bowl, Army has been invited to just two bowl games since 1997 and won just one, the 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl, in a 38-31 overtime victory over North Texas.