Whatever the reason may be, the Army-Navy Game may be seeing new life as a football product. Saturday’s contest between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Midshipmen scored the highest TV rating for an Army-Navy Game in 22 years, according to a press release from CBS, who airs the annual rivalry game.
This year’s Army-Navy Game drew an overnight rating of 5.6, which is the sixth-highest overnight rating for a college football game this season (right behind Clemson-Louisville and ahead of Ohio State-Wisconsin, both primetime games). The rating was up 10 percent over last year’s Army-Navy Game, which was the highest TV rating for the game since 1996.
So what was the draw to this year’s game? It being the final college football game called by Verne Lundquist on CBS surely played a sentimental role for some, as Lundquist signed off for the last time after years in the booth. It also helped that this was Army’s best season in some time and many figured it would be Army’s best chance to defeat their rivals from Annapolis in quite some time. Obviously, that was true as Army snapped a 14-game losing streak to the Midshipmen and celebrated with their fans on the field afterward.
The more telling trend for the game is the decision made to place the game on its own day after conference championship weekend. Yes, it may present a headache for the bowl process, but the game is rich with history, tradition and pageantry that deserves its own national spotlight without being overshadowed by conference championship games later in the day. Navy’s move to the American Athletic Conference has not impeded that tradition, and the conference stands to benefit from that exposure as well (especially if Navy wins).
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