Army Can Host AAC Championship

[neumanna1]

The 2 main HBCU conferences opted out of the FCS playoff like 10 years ago to host their own Bowl, the Celebration Bowl, which has become a pretty big deal. They figured that was more important, and I'm sure much more profitable, than getting smacked around in the first round of the FCS Playoffs.

Could a time come when Army and Navy are willing to do the same thing in regard to the CFP? It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, and I get that, but we've talked for weeks now about how the days of being competitive with the likes of Notre Dame are probably over for the SA's. And a lot of teams in the playoff are a lot better than Notre Dame is (in my opinion).

I'm sure this isn't something they necessarily want to do, and the AAC would probably have something to say about it. But if keeping the game in the 2nd week of December meant they had to forgo a chance at the playoff, which is already a miniscule chance year-to-year, (and probably results in the kind of result we saw 2 weeks ago at Yankee Stadium), they may end up considering it. As has been said, moving it to the week before Thanksgiving means its on the same day as tons of other rivalry games. Army-Navy will still have its audience to be sure, but they'd be losing millions of dollars a year in TV contracts.

Just thinking out loud.

[neumanna1]

I just realized though that in this hypothetical the CFP first round games are also on this day, so nevermind I guess. They wouldn't be exclusive anyway.

[wpgrad]

When the Navy contract runs out in 2027/2028, the new contract will be for a different date and the game will become a conference game. You can take that to the bank.

My guess is that the game will become a Thanksgiving Saturday game for TV purposes, and based on that change, West Point will do something like be "closed" the entire thanksgiving week so that the cadets can leave the previous weekend and still have a thanksgiving break, eat Thanksgiving at home, and then the corps will come back to WP after thanksgiving on late Friday to bus out Saturday morning which they are going to absolutely love.

Nothing else makes sense. Leaving it where it is is dumb, and moving it to some random october is no good either.

Now....if we see the super league 48 teams form....then none of this matters anyway

[jgish92]

We'll see. Money usually drives these things. I don't think Army and Navy can afford to take that kind of financial hit. What's the financial reason to move it from where it is now? There's a reason both Army and Navy played Notre Dame this season - at neutral sites. It wasn't just tradition.

[PrideandDream]

Jgish, fair points. My view is that A/N is not going to be some immovable object for all of college football. So what I mean is that the game and the playoffs are going to move things around as they have to. We obviously don't own that weekend. We just chose 2nd week because it was a normal gap. But the Playoffs are going to start impacting this I'm afraid. There are at least 4 weeks of playoffs and teams will want a gap between round 3 and 4 so likely it takes 5 weeks to play. That is the time line that will be squeezed in between the First two weeks of January and the first week of December when all the conference championships are played. That I think will force games to begin moving towards that 2nd week. So we may try to keep it there, and maybe the AAC allows for that, but there is nothing stopping the CFP from planning Round 1 of the playoffs that same week. Especially considering that in the current model the 4 highest ranked conf champs get a bye anyways.

In other words I'm certain of your argument that the current arrangement is the most lucrative. but I'm not certain that if the CFP were to begin that same week down the road that we would have the same draw and same financial bargaining power. Especially if we have bad teams on both sides. People will watch other games just like we saw in the past when we were head to head with the conference championships.

I think WPGrads comments about moving to the front end of Thanksgiving is a highly likely event because that would or could likely generate the most viewership and eyeballs.

either way we will see. Nothing will remain unchanged for too long.

PD

[gabn92]

I agree...when the current contract ends, the A/N game is going to be moved to a conference game on rivalry weekend. It will impact Thanksgiving Saturday, but USMA will adjust...the only thing constant at West Point is the change. They will figure it out. One option would be a longer fall break linked to Veterans Day for example. Another option would be to end the fall semester early and give a longer Christmas break. The cadets will get their time off...it may just not be Thanksgiving weekend at that point.

Under current financial arrangements, it wouldn't make sense, but things will look different when it comes time to renegotiate the A/N contract.

It will be better for Army for scheduling purposes, as it will open another non-conference opponent up for Army which can help in getting Army greater national visibility.

[wpgrad]

I agree...when the current contract ends, the A/N game is going to be moved to a conference game on rivalry weekend. It will impact Thanksgiving Saturday, but USMA will adjust...the only thing constant at West Point is the change. They will figure it out. One option would be a longer fall break linked to Veterans Day for example. Another option would be to end the fall semester early and give a longer Christmas break. The cadets will get their time off...it may just not be Thanksgiving weekend at that point.

Under current financial arrangements, it wouldn't make sense, but things will look different when it comes time to renegotiate the A/N contract.

It will be better for Army for scheduling purposes, as it will open another non-conference opponent up for Army which can help in getting Army greater national visibility.

I mention thanksgiving because you can market that as a TV channel. Maybe we don't get as much money, but while i think the average fan doesn't really care about Army Navy day to day, over thanksgiving break is a natural time to play that game. The logistics of it just make sense....compared to an October date.

But money will drive the ship of course. But I'd love to see if because that would give army a now 3rd open date (AF, and FCS, a big P4 schoool...and now this open 4th date because navy is now in conference). This would be perfect for army to start playing the northeast Syracuse UConn Umass of the world as our extra date

[RABBLE]

We'll see. Money usually drives these things. I don't think Army and Navy can afford to take that kind of financial hit. What's the financial reason to move it from where it is now? There's a reason both Army and Navy played Notre Dame this season - at neutral sites. It wasn't just tradition.

No tradition and sure no rivalry anymore with the Irish . ND has milked this nostalgia dry with us and their Shamrock Series which is nothing more than a publicity stunt to puff up their ratings against some team they should not even schedule. This year we were the pin cushion in their charade.
It is over just like any thought of a national playoff possibility. If we could not do it with a special team we have this year, when the hell you guys can think we can do this in the future? Stop with the ego trip and face reality.
We had no problems scheduling and would never have the problem. Now we are stuck in a league with no real depth of interest and just like i said, it will become the next version of C-USA. 3-4 years and we will be right back again to that horrible era of the team we all love.
To me it is curse of all who made this league ours today and some day we will regret this lazy, unthought situation and decision.
Propped up legacy now for the present crew and very unfortunate to the men who will run this beautiful and historical program in the future.
You want to keep the coaches we now have?
The answer is this-- If you can build a new stadium for 200 million (cost overruns), you damn site can pay your staff commensurate with any power 4 school.s not your legacy here. It is ours, the men and women, grads and non- grads, soldiers and civilians who have put millions into this program just to see this team compete in the finest realistic way.
It is OUR WAY, the Army way and it is our national treasure.

[kfan12]

....
The answer is this-- If you can build a new stadium for 200 million (cost overruns), you damn site can pay your staff commensurate with any power 4 school.s not your legacy here. It is ours, the men and women, grads and non- grads, soldiers and civilians who have put millions into this program just to see this team compete in the finest realistic way.
It is OUR WAY, the Army way and it is our national treasure....

And yet, at the moment, the team is 10-1 and we're carping about not playing Georgia State or Ball State instead of North Texas and Temple. Seriously? We're supposed to worry that the strength of schedule isn't tough enough and at the same time that these conference foes will figure out Army's offense and the team will fall into the doldrums because of it? If they are such cupcakes maybe we ought to be able to compete anyway. If our offense is so easily defeated once the opponent has seen it more than once unless they play different teams every year, maybe we ought to fix that.

I certainly hope this off-season crap isn't what the team and coach are focused on as they prep for Tulane and a potential conference championship TOMORROW night.

Can we not suck the life out of a good moment?

[RABBLE]

This year IS our moment.

What have I been saying since the very day on our forum? It appears that a few of you are starting to come around to my way of thinking.
In a couple of years all our conference teams will learn how to defend our offense because of yearly repetition.
As a result, when our staff decides to move, we will get another coach who will just love to go back to a pro-style scheme (like our horror show of the past in Todd Berry) and we will right be back to 3-4 win seasons.
Can't most of you realize this?
We are stuck in a league that will demand millions to get out of it, if the league even survives, with the present, thrown together, non-relevant mish-mash nondesript wannabees.

I would rather play mid-major Group of 5 opponents geographically relevant to our program and some other schools nationally that have some meaning to us with some feeling towards them.
And I do not feel that Tulsa, Charlote, Florida Atlantic or anybody else in this crackpot put-together association of teams that we could rarely get excited about these days.

Ah, just wake up somebody.