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The annual showdown between Army and Navy is one of college football’s coolest traditions, but there are questions surrounding the future of the game as the College Football Playoff gears up to expand.
The gridiron rivalry between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen stretches all the way back to 1890, a year that saw the latter head up to West Point and walk away with a 24-0 victory. Their meeting in 2024 will mark the 125th time the two military academies have faced off in a series where Navy has the edge with a 62-55-7 record.
The Army-Navy game was scheduled to be played on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for the majority of its existence. However, that date was eventually eschewed in favor of the second Saturday in December, an occasion that now marks the official end of the college football regular season.
There are plenty of reasons what is also known as “America’s Game” is unique, including the fact that the two schools have long been the only two programs in the country that play a game on the Saturday in question. However, as Yahoo Sports reports, there’s a chance that may no longer be the case in the near future.
2024 will mark the first year 12 teams will get the chance to compete in the College Football Playoff, and the expansion of that field has sparked a butterfly effect with some notable scheduling implications.
The outlet notes ESPN and its bowl partners are currently exploring the possibility of scheduling some of those postseason contests on the same day as the Army-Navy game. The latter’s athletic director strongly implied that shift would be a slap in the face, saying, “It’s special nationally and special to our troops all over the world. There’s a respect about it that has been appreciated to date.”
There’s also a theoretical issue that arises now that 12 teams are eligible for the CFP. There’s virtually no chance Army or Navy would’ve have come close to sniffing the playoff under its four-team format, but now that the door has opened wider for programs hailing from the Group of Five, it’s a distinct (albeit fairly unlikely) possibility.
With that said, the CFP Committee is currently slated to announce which teams have punched their ticket prior to the Army-Navy game, which means it would find itself in an awkward position if the outcome of the showdown had the potential to make or break either team’s case for making the cut.
It does appear they’ll simply delay the announcement if that ends up being the case, so the biggest question that remains is whether or not ESPN will run the risk of disrespecting the troops by pushing up the start of bowl season.