College Football Playoffs

[kfan12]

I'm all for just enjoying this ride while we're on it. Hoping we get to 8-0 this weekend and keep Army in the national sporting news.

Let's try to quit throwing bait in every thread to start an argument.

[WrekDivr]

Pretty easy to take a "perfect storm" of a season where the AAC gifts us by not having to play a few of the best AAC teams...and then puff out our chest and say after 8 weeks of football "oh this was 100% the right choice."

Forgive me for not being excited about playing Tulsa and FAU year after year after year, and for not having the flexibility of our scheduling where we can play opponents from across the country. And....lets see how everyone feels if we stupidly have to play the A-N game two weeks in a row especially if we lose both.

Has this been a fun season? of course. I plan to attend the AAC championship and a bowl game if it plays out. Army is undefeated and AF sucks.

Does 8 weeks of short-term success prove this move to a conference was the smart choice? Of course not. Moving to a conference was the lazy man's move by our AD and grossly restricts our scheduling options each year AND is likely going to cause the Army-Navy game to be moved by 2028 to a random November weekend and now that game loses a bit of its popularity

AND...playing this weak AAC schedule is actually negatively impacting us. If we had our usual schedule from year's past, we might have more "strong" wins to overcome boise. If memory serves, this year we were going to play Marshall, Kansas State and Syracuse before the AAC move. As it stands right now, though, because we have this week AAC schedule our only shot at the playoffs is likely beating ND. Again, being in a conference hurts more than it helps.

I AGREE WITH WPGRAD 100%. The next few years will prove us correct. Not playing a national schedule is for the birds!! Do you want to play Tulsa, FAU and Charlotte every damn year? I sure as hell do not. A good variety of teams on an annual basis excites me more than a hum-drum no-nothings set of the same teams year after year after year.

It will take a few years to get a clear verdict on the move to the AAC. That said, I think there a couple of things I disagree with in the discussion above:

1. While our schedule this year is weak (at least so far), let’s not forget that we played 2 FCS teams almost every year and that is one of the reasons we missed a bowl the last two years.

2. We played a lot of the same teams multiple times - UTSA is a clear example. With the current size of the AAC, we won’t play the same teams every year. Using Navy’s schedule this year as an example, there are 5 AAC teams they are playing this year that they also played last year, less than half their schedule.

3. It has made watching other AAC games more interesting, either to preview an opponent or because it impacts league standings. You just don’t get this dimension as an independent.

So, while time will tell, there have clearly been some positives to joining the AAC.

[ArmyBN82]

We will see what the future brings but there is no denying that this season vying for a conference championship and the CIC has brought Army a tremendous amount of national publicity Army didn’t have before. As we are now 8-0 even with the toughest part of the schedule ahead Army has garnered tremendous recruiting PR and respect. No CFP should be done without talking about Army as this podcast states. Boise looking very mortal now too. I love the attention to the Army program and the Academy.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/VQfV0yokEjY

[WrekDivr]

We will see what the future brings but there is no denying that this season vying for a conference championship and the CIC has brought Army a tremendous amount of national publicity Army didn’t have before. As we are now 8-0 even with the toughest part of the schedule ahead Army has garnered tremendous recruiting PR and respect. No CFP should be done without talking about Army as this podcast states. Boise looking very mortal now too. I love the attention to the Army program and the Academy.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/VQfV0yokEjY

The amount of coverage has been exponentially more than previous years. I was running an errand this morning in an Army sweatshirt and a ~17 year old asks me if we were going for 7-0 or 8-0 today. Usually they don’t even recognize the logo.

[ArmyBN82]

Exponential more daily coverage and discussion. Today ESPN - Allstate playoff predictor has Army at #17 and 20% chance to make the CFP. Boise in driver seat and a lot more hard football ahead for Army but incredible recognition for the Academy. If Daily back next week and healthy expect the Heisman talk to rise even more as the Cinderella run continues.
https://sports.yahoo.com/army-football- ... 26471.html

[JKillerK]

My son was at the Giants game yesterday wearing an ARMY hoodie. He said there were all sorts of positive comments passed his way.

[ArmyBN82]

JKillerK and WrekDivrbare correct amount the coverage the team, academy at the Army are getting. I also get comments if I wear Army shirts to the gym and comments on our being undefeated. Didn’t get comments on our past football seasons. As for the CFP - even with Daily out the press keeps the flames on the CFP dream alive for Army. Everyone realizes still won’t be easy going forward as each game will be tough but the dream and great season are still there. https://www.recordonline.com/story/spor ... 081019007/

[neumanna1]

Army went up only a spot, to 24 this week. Tulane is now right behind them at 25. This is significant for potential Home Field advantage in an AAC Championship game.
Tulane's victories are not really much more impressive than Army's, in fact its largely the same teams:
UAB, Rice, North Texas, and Temple are the same. They have an FBS win over SE Louisiana and a league win over South Florida. They beat a Louisiana team that's currently 8-1, which I'd concede is probably better than anyone Army has beaten so far. And their 2 losses as of now are to Kansas State and Oklahoma.

So it seems fairly obvious that in the case of both teams being 8-0 in the AAC, which would include Tulane having beaten Navy and Memphis by that point, they will be ranked higher than a one-loss (to ND) Army team.

My point is: if you want the AAC title game at Michie, probably best to root for Tulane to drop a game to either Memphis or Navy. If rooting for Navy isn't something you're capable of, I get that, but pull hard for Memphis on Thanksgiving (unless Army's beaten Notre Dame by that point, which would make this whole thing moot).

[gabn92]

Excellent points neumanna1. I was a little surprised to see Tulane jump up to 1 spot behind Army. Seems like the committee is viewing Army as a paper tiger, giving grudging respect due to being undefeated...but taking a "prove it" approach. Tulane is getting the benefit of doubt I think and they are positioning them to jump Army for home-field advantage should Army finish 10-1 (8-0 in conference) with a loss to ND and a win vs. UTSA and Tulane closes at 10-2, but 8-0 in conference with quality wins against Navy and Memphis to close the season.

I guess it's Go Navy this weekend and Go Memphis next weekend!

It's also Go San Jose State vs. Boise St!

[USMAPAFAN]

The initial CFP poll was discouraging but iteration #2 was downright depressing for Army fans. Moving only 1 spot higher stinks. To see Colorado at 17 (2 losses) and Lousiville at 19 (3 losses) is discouraging. Whatever the algorithm is SOS is a major factor. We always knew we would have to beat ND to potentially get in but now we have to hope that win helps us jump 12 spots. I don’t see that happening. So that would lead us to needing a lot of help with other teams losing.