The Connecticut Huskies football team is a collegiate football team that competes in NCAA Division I FBS and the American Athletic Conference (The American). Connecticut first fielded a team in 1896, and participated in Division I-AA until 1999. The Huskies began their two-year Division I-A transition period in 2000, and became a full-fledged Division I-A team in 2002. From 2000 to 2003 the team played as an independent. The schools football team then joined the conference of its other sport teams, the Big East (later named the American Athletic Conference in 2013), starting in 2004.