Everybody knows the Army-Navy game is played on the second Saturday of December. What Army coach Jeff Monken presupposes is that\u00a0maybe it shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\n
Before 2009, the annual Army-Navy game was usually played the first weekend in December. Now, Monken thinks the historic rivalry should move to Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving weekend to make room for the first round of the College Football Playoff, which wants to move up a week to avoid ending in late January.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not an appetite for the college football season to go all the way to the end of January,\u201d Monken told The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a real hope that we can get this thing into one semester, and have the championship game around Jan. 1, which I think would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if the CFP eventually expands to 16 teams, an earlier start could help pull the national championship back to early January, realigning it with the traditional college football calendar.<\/p>\n Moving the Army-Navy game up would also allow it to be part of the CFP\u2019s consideration for either team when deciding who will qualify. Right now, the game is played after the CFP field is selected.<\/p>\n There are many concerns about protecting the exclusivity of the Army-Navy game window<\/a>. In January, President Donald Trump said he would sign an executive order<\/a> to keep the game\u2019s four-hour TV window exclusive that weekend, preventing the CFP from moving into that timeslot. It\u2019s unclear how enforceable Trump\u2019s order is, and he likely issued it only as a favor to the Ellison-owned Paramount, which holds the Army-Navy rights. Still, it speaks to how much people want to protect the game\u2019s window.<\/p>\n Monken agrees and would just ask that, wherever the game is moved that weekend, it still receives a four-hour exclusivity window.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Army-Navy is a huge part of the history of college football, and what it is today, even,\u201d he said. \u201cGive us a four-hour block on Thanksgiving, or on Friday of Thanksgiving, or on Saturday of Thanksgiving, and give us a four-hour block, and just say nobody else plays during this four-hour block,\u201d Monken said. \u201cThat\u2019s still protecting the game.\u201d<\/p>\n That might be easier said than done. Thanksgiving Day would be the only day between Thursday and Saturday that isn\u2019t saturated with college football games, but it does have three NFL games to compete with. It\u2019s hard to imagine ESPN, ABC, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, and any other broadcasters would all gladly give up a four-hour window on either Friday or Saturday. And by the time you get to Sunday, the NFL is back in action (not to mention the Black Friday game).<\/p>\n