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Besides the actual game itself, A/N week is usually a lot of fun with all of the activities. Taking away thanksgiving break might kill all of the enthusiasm for the game. Might be unavoidable at this point though.

Happy Independence Day!

Just thought I'd give this dead horse one more kick before it gets buried for good.

The A-N game can never be all things to all people. No need to pursue the demographic that will only watch if nothing else is on. As long as the people running college football insist on expanding the tournament (what's the over/under on how long it takes to go to 20 or 24?), just sit back and watch all other games fade into well deserved oblivion.

Traditional Bowl games - completely obliterated -- except for all the 6-6 teams lucky enough to drag their seasons out long past their expiration date.
Conference Championship Games - made completely unnecessary (assuming of course they were ever necessary in the first place).
Next in the crosshairs - traditional rivalry games. Watching THE Ohio State University celebrate a NC within weeks of losing to Michigan tells me all I need to know about the current status of "must-win" rivalry games. If Ryan Day adds another Natty or two to his resume no one in Columbus will ever care about his record vs Michigan.

So there you have it - long after everyone forgets who even played in (much less won) last Years Rose Bowl game - the A/N game will retain its following. To take a look at the bright side, the folks in Alabama can breathe a sigh of relief that even a loss to Vandy (once a guaranteed KO punch to any program with NC aspirations) won't be enough to keep them out of the Big (and getting bigger by the minute) Dance.

The Army-Navy Game moved off the traditional date once both academics' programs dipped from the ranks of the national powers.

The date we consider traditional today was radical then and done to ensure people would watch the game. Americans enjoy the A-N Game when it is the sole option. Stack it against the Iron Bowl, Michigan-Ohio State, an NFL contest on Thanksgiving, and other powerhouse games and see the viewership plummet.

We are going to either choose Week 0 or resign ourselves to sharing the final weekend. It makes losing the yearly Notre Dame game all the more painful.

Army Frog Fan wrote: ↑Wed May 28, 2025 12:05 pm The "big time" matchup between Tulane and Memphis took in 650k viewers last year and, as stated above, Navy if already playing this year on Thanskgiving day and Army is playing the next day. You really think A-N is going to pull in more eyeballs going up against games that weekend like Texas-Texas A&M, Alabama-Auburn, Ole Miss-Miss St, UGA-GT, Airzona-ASU, Florida, FSU, USC, UCLA, etc., etc., etc. or against the first round of playoff games, all of which will draw more college football eyeballs away from A-N?

If you throw it up against one NFL game on Thanksgiving night on ESPN, it would definitely get more eyeballs than the scenario above. It's where we are at this point.

As for the Cadets/Mids missing Thanksgiving day at home, that's an easy fix. They can fly/drive home after the game or the following day and give them Monday off. Millions of people in the country have to celebrate holidays on different days because or travel/work issues.

I would chance it against college competition over fighting the behemoth NFL, which buried the NBA on Christmas Day, despite both NFL games residing on Netflix versus the NBA's ABC schedule.