Interesting Read - Moving Army Navy Date?

[Sapperghost]

https://awfulannouncing.com/college-foo ... eek-0.html


I am not saying I support this. Upon the initial glance at the headline I clicked to see the absurdities that would be in the prevailing word salad.

Saying that, and again I would not want the change, I am shocked at some of the reasoning that he gives to support his statement and idea.

There would of course be a multitude of hurdles within each Academy and summers aren’t exactly conducive for the concentration on this game but Klatt did a nice job presenting and supporting his thoughts.

[ArmorDude]

I just don't see how you give this game its own day anymore. I think it should move to rivalry week but have a prime time slot. Maybe the Friday after Thanksgiving? CBS could get the NFL to not have a game on Amazon or Peacock or whatever that night...

Yes, this mess with Thanksgiving leave so it will never happen - but having the game the weekend after the AAC championship is an issue.

[DoubleNuts]

The second Saturday in December does not work anymore for all the reasons we already know. I'm ready for it to move to Thanksgiving weekend too. Primetime on Friday or Saturday night. Yeah this would conflict with Thanksgiving leave. Not as big of deal as it might seem initially. Keep the Corps there for Thanksgiving meal in the Mess Hall. Have the officer and cadet leadership put on their dress uniforms and serve everyone else like they do in the "Real Army." (Good training!) Or have a formal family style meal like they do now for Christmas; it'll just be moved up. Then start exams a bit earlier and let the cadets go home for longer over Christmas leave, which lots of cadets will appreciate since they can't actually go home for Thanksgiving.

I guess my point is that the Academy could find a way to make it work. My dad's class didn't get Christmas leave plebe year and my class didn't get spring break plebe year, so in principle, USMA has no problem not granting leave to cadets.

[gabn92]

Thanks for sharing the article...definitely an interesting idea and it has some merit.

I like the idea of moving the game to Thanksgiving the best...it's "Rivalry Week" in college football, so let Army-Navy have a slot somewhere from Thurs - Sat of that weekend and it will do fine. I'm sure the networks can figure out how to feature it so that it still gets lots of attention.

I agree with the earlier post about the Academy being able to figure it out regarding Thanksgiving break for the Corps. Totally doable to just end the semester early and give them all a longer Christmas break.

Veteran's Day weekend is another possibility that could work and would have meaning for the country as well. The article's idea of making it THE week 0 game is intriguing. Tough for both schools coming off summer training to head into that game...and I fear that would favor Navy as I think the summer training schedule and demands are tougher and less flexible at West Point than they are at Navy. It also wouldn't allow for any "build-up" during the season.

It's untenable where it sits now and actually becomes more and more meaningless to keep forcing it into the mid-December slot. The rest of the college football world has ended the regular season and moved on to the playoffs, the portal, bowl season, etc. It just feels "off" to squeeze it into that slot anymore...not to mention the already discussed problems it creates with having to play it after an AAC Championship game.

Please...USMA, USNA, AAC, ESPN, CBS, ABC or whomever...figure this out and get the A-N game slotted where it will make sense within today's college football world and still be a featured rivalry game the country can enjoy.

[Army Frog Fan]

There is no reason to move the game, and certainly not for the reasons he states. Army Navy was not diminished this year because of the Heisman ceremony or it not being part of the CFP rankings. Sure, the talking heads want to focus on the playoff matchups and big bowls, but that has always been the case. When ESPN Gameday was there, most of the show was discussing other games that were weeks away and teh Heisman ceremony that evening. Anyone who might have remotely tuned into Army Navy this year did so. I do think CBS should do their own, Gameday-esque show that day and air it on actual CBS. That's the biggest fix to give the game the respect it deserves. Most people don't even know the CBS Sports channel exists and certainly don't tune into their excellent coverage.

Mentioned above is the AAC championship game. The odds of either playing in the AAC championship game regularly are pretty low. Navy's only been once so far in what, 9 years? Miami and FSU were put in opposite divisions when the ACC added BC in 2005, set up so they could theoretically be a big-time matchup in the ACC Championship game. How many times did they play each other? Zero. Hell, Miami only made 1 ACC Championship game since they did that.

All that said, if the game were to be moved, the only spot I'd support would be Thanksgiving night, in prime time. Cadets and Midshipmen could either take leave directly following the game or bus back to the Academies and then take leave the next morning. Either the Cowboys or Lions are on CBS earlier that day, so you could have the guys in the booth and at halftime hyping up the later game. Yes, it'd be up against an NFL game on NBC, but so what. I don't really care about tv ratings anyway.

That's my $0.02

[jgish92]

The game won't get moved until the sponsorship and broadcast money is negatively impacted by keeping the game where it is. It's 15-20% of the budget of each athletic department.
Ratings are out. The game isn't moving anytime soon. There is no other slot where you will get these numbers unless some other things change.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/1 ... east-1990/

[Oliphant]

Moving it to Thanksgiving would be ratings suicide.

The NFL crushes competition and Americans aren't skipping the NFL for Army-Navy. The game moved to its singular date because it couldn't compete with other big rivalries once the programs failed to maintain national rankings.

Maybe Black Friday could work but no network isn't swaying the NFL into ceding a timeslot or day.

If necessary, the cadets can stay on campus for Thanksgiving. This is a good lesson about Army life.