Bleacher Report published a piece this week where it looked at the most anticipated college football rematches of the 2017 season. After Army beat Navy for the first time in what seems like a lifetime it would only make sense for the 2017 Army-Navy game to feature high on this list.
Wrong.
It turns out that the Army-Navy game is not even one of the top 10 rematches according to Bleacher Report and writer Kerry Miller. The game only gets an honorable mention tag, ostensibly because the contest will not have any impact on the College Football Playoff. This seems like a horrible metric to use when deciding what the best rematches are, not least because the 2017 Army-Navy game represents a possible turning point that the series has not seen in over a decade.
Here is the list of 10 rematches that are allegedly more highly anticipated than Army Navy:
- Michigan at Penn State
- Auburn at LSU
- Oklahoma at Oklahoma State
- Oklahoma at Ohio State
- Alabama at Auburn
- Penn State at Ohio State
- LSU at Alabama
- Clemson at Louisville
- Florida State at Clemson
- Ohio State at Michigan
I can understand some of these games being ranked ahead of Army and Navy, but the bottom end of the list is highly questionable. Miller has two Clemson games in the top 3 spots, but the Tiger’s identity for 2017 in very much in question given the personnel losses on offense. Also, you have to ask if games such as Clemson at Louisville and Auburn at LSU have the same level of national interest as Army vs Navy does.
While it is nice to see the game on the second Saturday in December get some love, it would be nicer if the true impact of the game was gauged better.
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