College athletics is in a sorry state of affairs. The transfer portal combined with Name, Image and Likeness have caused chaos.
College football and basketball programs perform massive roster overhauls every year. Did you have an unsuccessful season? Just go out and get a new group of players and try again. Do you need better talent? Tell your collective you need more NIL money to lure better players away from other programs.
Athletes are taking advantage of this broken system to improve their salaries. Quarterbacks and point guards coming off impressive statistical seasons are offering their services to the highest bidder, and they have agents to handle the negotiations.
Don’t even get me started on conference realignment.
Now comes ominous warning signs the power brokers are coming after one of the last bastions of what is still good about college sports — the Army-Navy Game. In the span of a week, two well respected college football analysts suggested moving the Army-Navy Game away from the second Saturday in December.
It started with Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt making the ridiculous suggestion of moving the Army-Navy Game to Week Zero. You read that right, Klatt thinks it would be great for the greatest rivalry game in all of college sports to be played on Aug. 23.
Klatt wants to see the College Football Playoff expanded with the first round of games being played on the second Saturday of December. He actually thinks holding the service academy showdown in August would be great for Army and Navy.
“So what do we do with Army-Navy? It’s getting pinched by the Heisman. It’s getting pinched by the playoff,” Katz opined during his weekly podcast. “We now play a bowl game on the same day. It’s not in the right spot. Army-Navy needs to start the football season. Week Zero of football.”
What in the world is Katt talking about? The Heisman Trophy presentation is held at 8 p.m., long after the Army-Navy Game is over. The two bowl games held on Dec. 14 this season were the Celebration Bowl between Jackson State and South Carolina State (noon kickoff) and the Salute to Veterans Bowl between South Alabama and Western Michigan (9 p.m. kickoff).
Nothing “squeezed” the Army-Navy Game, which kicked off at 3 p.m. There was no other sporting event of consequence played during that window and the Army-Navy Game drew its highest television rating since 1990 with a massive 9.4 million viewers.
A few days later, ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum expressed concern about the College Football Playoff overlapping with the NFL playoffs. Speaking on the Matt Barrie Show on ESPN, Finebaum also suggested the College Football Playoff should begin on the second Saturday in December and was more important than the Army-Navy Game.
“Well, we’re wasting a week,” Finabaum said. “I know I’m going to upset somebody, but the week of the Army-Navy Game needs to be in the playoffs. That is a wasted Saturday. What do we have? We have the Army-Navy Game and the Heisman. We can’t figure out some other time?”
I never thought I would hear anyone who claims to care about college football speak about one of the greatest spectacles in the sport in such dismissive tones. Having covered the Army-Navy Game for almost three decades, I can tell you that special Saturday is not “wasted.”
It would be easy to simply dismiss these comments as “hot takes” from television talking heads who get paid to make controversial statements that attract headlines. Indeed, multiple articles have been written about the Klatt and Finebaum comments regarding Army-Navy.
Count Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk among those who could care less about what media members think on certain college athletics topics.
“I don’t get worked up over this stuff. People in the media like to stir the pot. Who the heck is Paul Finebaum? I’m not going to listen to that guy. I could care less what he thinks,” Gladchuk said. “Has Paul Finebaum ever been to an Army-Navy Game? Has he ever experienced the patriotism, the pageantry and what that game means to our country?”
However, many Navy fans are concerned about these comments because they know Klatt and Finebaum represent national television networks and power four conferences. Klatt and Fox Sports have a broadcast partnership with the Big Ten and Big 12, while Finebaum is the Southeastern Conference expert for ESPN.
Neither Finebaum nor Klatt would be floating these proposals without the approval of their network bosses. Fox, ESPN, the Big Ten and SEC see expanding the playoff and holding games on the second Saturday in December as additional revenue and it is those entities that would like to see the Army-Navy Game moved to another date.
I and many others believe Klatt and Finebaum were specifically asked by their respective employers to introduce these talking points into the national conversation. However, publicly suggesting moving the Army-Navy Game and having it actually happen are two entirely different things. I’m hopeful that college football fans, especially the nearly 10 million that watched this year’s Army-Navy Game, push back on this absurd idea.
I talked to Gladchuk the day of the national championship game after he’d spent three days in Atlanta for meetings of the College Football Playoff committee, of which he is a member. This was the first year of the CFP and the committee naturally reviewed how it unfolded.
Gladchuk acknowledged there was discussion about expanding the CFP or altering certain dates to not conflict with the NFL. Thoughts and ideas were exchanged, but no decisions were made.
“Right now, there is a tremendous amount of analysis about the playoff. There are going to be people with opinions about what they think the landscape should be going forward,” Gladchuk said. “I just spent the last three days with all the people involved with the College Football Playoff and no one has brought up moving the Army-Navy Game to a different date.”
Gladchuk has been an athletic director for nearly four decades and is well respected within the industry. You can bet that Gladchuk will fight hard and lobby vociferously to protect the Army-Navy Game and the broadcast window it currently holds.
“We’re not moving the game. The Army-Navy Game is going to stay on the second Saturday of December regardless. The only question is: could there be some infiltration by other events on that day?” he said. “Right now, the people that are influential that I have spoken with have a great degree of respect for the Army-Navy Game. They have made a commitment to protecting that window as was the case this past season.”
CBS Sports announced in early December it had agreed to a 10-year contract extension to broadcast the Army-Navy Game. That deal, which extends the network’s multi-platform rights through 2038, ensures that CBS Sports will remain the home of “America’s Game” for more than four decades.
A few days later, USAA, presenting sponsor of the game since 2009, announced it had come to an agreement with the two service academies to extend its sponsorship of the Army-Navy Game to 2030.
“The only institutions that are dictating the second Saturday in December are Army and Navy,” Gladchuk said. “We are engaged with CBS Sports and USAA and NFL facilities for many years into the future. Right now, there is nothing that is disrupting the game plan we have going forward.”
While the College Football Playoff is big business, so is the Army-Navy Game. CBS Sports, USAA and many other heavily invested sponsors also have powerful voices and will work behind the scenes to maintain the sanctity of the event.
Dan Weinberg, executive vice president of programming for CBS Sports, said the Army-Navy Game “transcends sports” and is ingrained in the fabric of America. Weinberg said it’s called “America’s Game” for a reason because it’s about patriotism, pageantry and tradition.
Playing the Army-Navy Game in a stand-alone window allows CBS Sports to highlight the sacrifices of all those that serve in the military and put the spotlight on the two service academies as well.
CBS Sports takes pride in television the march-on of the Corps of Cadets and Brigade of Midshipmen along with the flyovers and other pregame festivities. Those elements, along with the post-game singing of the respective alma maters, are what viewers love the most.
“We are extremely proud to be part of the Army-Navy Game, and it goes without saying it’s an event we at CBS Sports consider one of our crown jewels,” Weinberg said. “We view it as an event that is deserving of the national spotlight it receives by being played on that second Saturday in December in a window without any other college football games being played.”
There is also political support for preserving the Army-Navy Game as focal point of the second Saturday in December. Just prior to the 2024 game, more than 55 members of Congress sent a letter to the College Football Playoff committee and the organization known as “Bowl Season” asking them to maintain the Army-Navy Game as a “time-honored tradition.”
Senator Dan Sullivan, an Alaskan republican, drafted the letter that expressed concern about the two bowl games that were moved to the second Saturday in December this season.
“On behalf of both Army and Navy, all those who are serving or have served our country and the citizens whom we represent, we respectfully request you set aside the second Saturday in December in future seasons solely for the Army vs. Navy Game,” the letter stated. “Other games should not compete with this game. It’s too important for our country. For one Saturday in December, the CFP and Bowl Season should put our country, and our service members first.”
Have a news tip? Contact Bill Wagner at bwagner@capgaznews.com, 443-534-0102 and x.com/@BWagner_CapGaz.