How an Army win over Notre Dame could upset the CFP, this year and in years to come

History hangs heavy over this weekend’s massive Army-Notre Dame showdown. Once upon a time, this was the most famous rivalry in the land, a war that bewitched the entire country. Americans waited anxiously for newspapers, gathered around radios, stared into the glow of massive early television sets to learn which of these titans would claim the year’s finest, most important game.

Army-Notre Dame inspired both the greatest lede in the history of sports journalism — Grantland Rice’s “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again” — and the greatest pregame speech in sports history, Knute Rockne’s “Win one for the Gipper” plea. It’s the wellspring of sports as myth, of coaches as stern but loving father figures and players as doomed or exalted heroes.

So it’s somehow perfect, narratively speaking, that this rivalry, which has fallen so far from its 20th-century heights, could once again alter the trajectory of an entire sport. The business of college football today would be unrecognizable to Rockne, Red Blaik, Ara Parseghian and other legends of the Notre Dame-Army rivalry, but the primary focus — size up that man on the other side of the line, beat him, and let the cards fall where they may — would be warmly familiar.

Army and Notre Dame claimed 16 national championships in the 20th century, including seven in the 1940s alone (technically six, since they share 1946). They’ve fallen far since then; Army’s last title season was in 1946, and Notre Dame’s was in 1988. The Irish have fought their way back to prominence since then, using limitless resources, a de facto personal broadcast network and a nationwide recruiting footprint.

The far more interesting transformation is happening in West Point, where Army is in the midst of making history on multiple fronts. The…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-21 18:33:00

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