The site of the annual Army-Navy football game is currently on a traveling tour, but the unique December position on the schedule won’t change, says Tim Pernetti, commissioner of the American Athletic Conference.

“Army-Navy is an institution,” Pernetti told the media in a conference call Monday ahead of Friday’s AAC title game between Tulane and Army (8 p.m., ABC). “Army-Navy is different, and if you haven’t been to the game, you don’t understand it.”

Officials from both schools and television rights holder CBS Sports moved the competition to the second Saturday in December beginning in 2009 – resulting in Army-Navy almost always being the only NCAA Division I-A football contest that day.

With the competition now scheduled for December 8-14, it will always be played after the growing number of conference championship games. For the 2015 season, Navy broke away from the ranks of independent schools and joined the AAC (the successor to the original Big East Conference). Army joined the AAC for football-only competition this season.