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Army and Navy aren't interested in moving their game from its traditional date the week after Championship Saturday. The College Football Playoff is interested in a possible workaround in the event Navy is set for a potential New Year's Six berth. Everyone's happy, right?
Not quite. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday he believes the game should be moved earlier in the college football calendar, calling the current situation "disruptive" to the rest of the FBS.
Navy, of course, has joined the AAC for the 2015 season, not Thompson's MWC. So why is he concerned with what the Midshipmen and Black Knights do? The workaround -- as reported by CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd -- would potentially have the CFP announce both Navy as the Group of Five No. 1 and a specific second team as Group of Five No. 2, with both teams' bowl destinations to be resolved after the Army-Navy game. That would possibly leave a Mountain West team (say, Boise State) and the league's Las Vegas Bowl partners in limbo while waiting to see if Navy clinched the New Year's Six berth or not.
“Let's say everything is delayed a week” while waiting for the Army-Navy tilt, Thompson said. “That gives a Mountain West team seven days, from Saturday to Saturday, to go to the Las Vegas Bowl. It's hard enough now on Dec. 5 having barely a couple of full weeks to get ready for it. One week would be, c'mon.”
“I'm a full American,” Thompson said. “I'm all in favor of the Army-Navy game. I think it's a tremendous athletic event, but it's disruptive to 128-plus other FBS schools.”
On the one hand, you can sympathize with Thompson and the schools he represents. If youare a Boise fan whose team could either play 1) in a big-ticket game on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day or 2) just seven days following the Army-Navy game, finalizing your travel and work plans isn't going to be a comfortable situation. And of course, it's not easy on a Las Vegas Bowl that has just six days to sell tickets to a matchup other than, for example, "Cal vs. [MWC Team TBD]."
On the other: this is Army-Navy. And this is college football. Sometimes, in this sport, exceptions simply have to be made to preserve certain traditions that, well, make thiscollege football. Particularly given that it's not even all that likely Navy would find itself in this position, we would argue this is one of those times.
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Not quite. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday he believes the game should be moved earlier in the college football calendar, calling the current situation "disruptive" to the rest of the FBS.
Navy, of course, has joined the AAC for the 2015 season, not Thompson's MWC. So why is he concerned with what the Midshipmen and Black Knights do? The workaround -- as reported by CBSSports.com's Dennis Dodd -- would potentially have the CFP announce both Navy as the Group of Five No. 1 and a specific second team as Group of Five No. 2, with both teams' bowl destinations to be resolved after the Army-Navy game. That would possibly leave a Mountain West team (say, Boise State) and the league's Las Vegas Bowl partners in limbo while waiting to see if Navy clinched the New Year's Six berth or not.
“Let's say everything is delayed a week” while waiting for the Army-Navy tilt, Thompson said. “That gives a Mountain West team seven days, from Saturday to Saturday, to go to the Las Vegas Bowl. It's hard enough now on Dec. 5 having barely a couple of full weeks to get ready for it. One week would be, c'mon.”
“I'm a full American,” Thompson said. “I'm all in favor of the Army-Navy game. I think it's a tremendous athletic event, but it's disruptive to 128-plus other FBS schools.”
On the one hand, you can sympathize with Thompson and the schools he represents. If youare a Boise fan whose team could either play 1) in a big-ticket game on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day or 2) just seven days following the Army-Navy game, finalizing your travel and work plans isn't going to be a comfortable situation. And of course, it's not easy on a Las Vegas Bowl that has just six days to sell tickets to a matchup other than, for example, "Cal vs. [MWC Team TBD]."
On the other: this is Army-Navy. And this is college football. Sometimes, in this sport, exceptions simply have to be made to preserve certain traditions that, well, make thiscollege football. Particularly given that it's not even all that likely Navy would find itself in this position, we would argue this is one of those times.
Continue reading...
