Every fleet needs a flagship.

If the American Athletic Conference is the fleet we’re talking about, the flagship — at least for this year — could be the undefeated Navy football team. And wouldn’t that be a bit of poetic justice?

Or it could be Army, which doesn’t have ships but has an unbeaten college football team, too.

This could be one of the best sports stories of the year, as two service academy teams haven’t been ranked and undefeated this far into the season since WWII — which was before the Air Force, or its academy, even existed. And it’s just in time for the College Football Playoff expansion from four to 12 teams.

Army and Navy don’t have as many coaching tree connections to the islands as they did a little more than a decade ago, when both staffs were headed by University of Hawaii alumni: Rich Ellerson at West Point and Ken Niumatalolo at Annapolis.

But Jeff Monken, Army’s coach now, started his career as a UH graduate assistant, and former ‘Bows quarterback Ivin Jasper still coaches that position, and the fullbacks, at Navy.

Despite now sharing a conference, Army and Navy aren’t scheduled to play each other until their annual game that signals the end of the regular season each year. That is unless they both keep winning and meet in the Dec. 6 conference championship game, a week before THE Army-Navy game.

Time for an important note: The traditional Army-Navy game, the one on Dec. 14 this year, won’t count for CFP purposes.

Time for another important note: Liberty, which plays in Conference USA, is also undefeated, and could be in contention for the CFP’s spot that a non-Power 4-conference team that wins its conference will get.

One of the academies might be the best feel-good story nationally, and there are also other contenders for the glass slipper besides them and Liberty. But prognosticators favor one Cinderella above the others, by far: Boise State.

Yes, going back to the 2000s and the tail-end of the WAC era, the program UH fans loved to hate after the BYU rivalry ran its course. Or, maybe that should be hate to love; what was good for the Broncos was often good for the conference because of then-BCS, now-CFP revenue-sharing.

But the clock is running out on Boise’s flagship status in the Mountain West, as it will attempt to assume that role in the newly formed Pac-12 starting in 2026. In case you need a reminder, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State will also join Oregon State and Washington State in the new Pac.

And the big sports news here last week was that most of UH’s sports will join football in the Mountain, along with holdovers Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV and Wyoming. Also, old-WAC member UTEP comes in from Conference USA.

This sets up all kinds of grudge matches — with a huge one looming Friday in Vegas, when Boise State visits UNLV.

Boise State had a bye last week after beating UH 28-7 here, and is 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Mountain West. The one loss was by just a field goal at Oregon. The Ducks ascended to No. 1 in any poll that means anything after keeping their undefeated record intact with a 35-0 pounding of Purdue on Friday.

UNLV’s one loss was also by just three points, but is not nearly as impressive, as it came against Syracuse (3-3) in overtime at home. Still, The Rebels are coming off what had to be a satisfying 33-25 victory at Oregon State. They are unranked, but that could change with an upset of No. 17 Boise State, and its Heisman Trophy contender, running back Ashton Jeanty.

A win by 3 1/2-point underdog UNLV at 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium might not be enough to mitigate that overtime loss to Syracuse when evaluating CFP resumes, but it would put it firmly in place as the flagship on the Mountain West leftovers.

Even with its excellent baseball and court sports facilities and unique time zone as assets, UH can only climb out of barge status when it has a full-size football venue, and a team worthy of it.