Proposal could let Army, Navy play 13th regular season game to fortify future College Football Playoff hopes

The NCAA Football Oversight Committee is expected to consider allowing Army and Navy to each play an extra regular-season game prior to the American Athletic Conference championship game in early December, multiple sources told CBS Sports.

Not counting that championship game, such a move would mean both service academies would play 13 total games, including their traditional rivalry game the second weekend of December. Such a change would require the NCAA to modify its rules that limit teams to 12 regular-season games.

The oversight committee is “likely to revisit” the NCAA rule that sets that limit when it next meets early in 2025, sources tell CBS Sports. Before that date, the 10 FBS commissioners are expected to take up the topic during their annual meeting at the site of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game next month, on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.

Army AD Mike Buddie told CBS Sports the prospect of an additional game had been a talking point for at least a year after the Black Knights decided to join the American Athletic Conference.

Both Army and Navy were then in CFP competition late into the season, playing in the same conference.

“When it was a four-team playoff, there was language in the agreement that if Army or Navy was in consideration, they would hold off on the [CFP] announcement until after the Army-Navy game,” Buddie said. “When they switched to the 12-team playoff, they removed that language, which essentially rendered the Army-Navy game irrelevant for conference standings and irrelevant as a data point for the CFP.

“So it makes sense for Chet [Gladchuk, Navy AD] and I to approach it from this angle.”

Such rule changes usually begin in the form of proposals that come from conferences. According to…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/proposal-could-let-army-navy-play-13th-regular-season-game-to-fortify-future-college-football-playoff-hopes/

Author : Dennis Dodd

Publish date : 2024-12-27 20:19:00

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