Newport, R.I. — The Civil Conflict was a hot topic of conversation on Tuesday.

If you haven't heard of the Civil Conflict, that's understandable.

The Civil Conflict is UConn coach Bob Diaco's relatively new creation.

In an attempt to start a rivalry with American Athletic Conference foe Central Florida, Diaco had a trophy made in the spring. It has a countdown clock until the next meeting. He first mentioned the idea following UConn's 37-29 win over Central Florida last November.

Diaco taken criticism for his idea. He's fine with that.

"That was created out of respect for their program and coaches," Diaco said. "Taking into account all the conversation from everybody, it all makes sense. ... Coach (George) O'Leary runs a program that way I love a football program to be run. And he's created one of the best football programs in the country and the best in our conference.

"So it's an easy conversation for me and our team. If you want to do something, you'll know you've arrived when you are consistently beating and competing with his teams."

As a player at Iowa and assistant coach at Notre Dame, Diaco has played his share of trophy games. He's always enjoyed competing for those prizes.

O'Leary has no problem with the Civil Conflict.

"I understand what he's trying to do," O'Leary said. "I just didn't know about it. It's not much of a rivalry game. What he said to me, he's trying to is emulate UCF as far as the kind of team he wants to be, which I took as great respect that he wanted to do that.

"Obviously, our rival is USF. It's hard to be (a rival) nine states away. ...  But I don't have a trophy with a clock on it, so I'm looking forward to that."

Diaco is open to changing the Civil Conflict name if somebody considers it offensive.

"We can call it 'The Conflict,'" Diaco said. "We can capitalize the FL and the CT. ... Whatever is the least offensive to everyone involved. ... It's about our team and our locker room and the energy coming from that group."

Diaco has already accomplished one goal: to pump up interest in the game. He plans to bring the trophy down to Orlando when UConn visits UCF on Oct. 10.

Saluting Navy

Navy is the newest member of the AAC football family. It is joining only in football, nothing else.

It ends a 134-year history of playing as an independent.

The Midshipmen went 8-5 last season, making the 11th time in the last 12 seasons they've won at least eight games. They were picked to finish third in the West Division, receiving seven first-place votes.

"Success is something that we look forward to achieving every year," quarterback Keenan Reynolds said. "We go into every game thinking that we can win. Nothing is going to change. We've got new teams and a new opportunity to play in the championship game for the conference."

"Other than that ... we're not going to change much."

Reynolds is aware of the brief history of the league. Part of the recruiting pitch when he came to Navy was about the possibility of Navy joining the Big East, which has since split. The Big East football schools, including UConn, left for other conferences.

State of the AAC

Commissioner Mike Aresco gave his State of the AAC address during football media day in Newport. He feels good about league's future.

"Our focus is on the future," Aresco said. "This is an exciting time. ... The best is yet to come."

For the first time, the ACC will hold a conference championship game. It will kick off at noon on Saturday, Dec. 5, with the team with the best conference record serving as host.

Aresco continues to be adamant that the AAC belongs in the conversation with the Power Five football conference.

"We respect them, their traditions, their success on the field, their fan base and their national popularity and TV ratings," Aresco said. "But we also know that our schools look very much like many if not all theirs and we can compete with them."

"We generate impressive TV ratings already and we have strong traditional programs as well as emerging up and coming programs. Having said that, I do not like the perceived divide that's developed in college sports, especially in college football. ... I would like to see more attention put on us and public opinion, I think, would follow. I don't want just the so-called power five to get the publicity."

News and notes

Cincinnati received 22 of 30 votes as the choice to win the inaugural American Championship. "We've got a heck of a team," quarterback Gunner Kiel said. "We've got some studs and some great athletes that can play at the next level. It's going to be a fun year and we look forward to it." ... Adams on UConn being picked last: "Performance speaks for itself, so that's all I care about." ... ESPN ranked UConn's schedule is one the top 25 most challenging schedules in the country, according to Diaco.

g.keefe@theday.com

Twitter: @GavinKeefe