Army football moves up in second College Football Playoff rankings

Army’s path to a College Football Playoff spot is still an uphill climb but now there’s a new threat.

The Black Knights (9-0) jumped up one spot, to No. 24, in the second CFP rankings released Tuesday night. However, fellow American Athletic Conference member Tulane has slipped into Army’s old spot at No. 25. On Saturday, Army beat North Texas 14-3 and Tulane crushed Temple 52-6.

Only the top 12 schools are going to make the inaugural expanded playoff but the next-to-last CFP ranking on Dec. 1 could deny Army an opportunity to host the AAC title game on Dec. 6. All signs point to Army and Tulane finishing atop the standings at 8-0 – since the schools did not meet one another in 2024, a key tie-breaker for the host position is the highest CFP ranking following the Nov. 28-30 weekend.

Army celebrates in the locker room after a 14-3 victory against North Texas at DATCU Stadium in Denton, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2024.

Tulane (8-2 overall) can eliminate Navy (7-2) from contention for making the AAC title game with a win at Annapolis, Md., on Saturday (ESPN2, noon ET), assuring a championship matchup between Army and Tulane. A Tulane victory would be considered a quality win, and AP ranked No. 16 Army faces the real prospect of being the underdog for a Nov. 23 meeting with No. 8 Notre Dame, at Yankee Stadium (NBC, 7 p.m. ET). On the final weekend, Tulane will host Memphis on Thanksgiving Night (ESPN, 7:30 p.m. ET) and Army hosts Texas San Antonio on Nov. 30 (CBSSN, noon ET).

However, a Navy win over Tulane could create three-way or four-way ties that have many scenarios.

In the CFP picture, the back-and-forth between Army and Tulane may only determine which bowl game is assigned from the guaranteed spots for the AAC, because AP and CFP ranked No. 13 Boise State (8-1) from the Mountain West still has the inside track for the lone…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/army-football-moves-second-college-031349345.html

Author : Times Herald-Record

Publish date : 2024-11-13 03:13:49

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.