Because of how the game of college football is trending, there may never be a time when either Army or Navy is in contention for a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game let alone a spot in the College Football Playoff. If the unexpected does happen, however, there’s officially a plan in place.
The annual Army-Navy game has found a permanent home the week after championship weekend. It will also be contested in the future -- rightly so, there’s zero consideration being given to moving it -- the week after the release of the final CFP rankings, which sets not only the four-team playoff field but the remaining New Year’s Six games as well. Because Navy will be joining the American Athletic Conference in 2015, there’s a possibility that service academy could be in line for the Group of Five’s automatic bid to a major bowl, which could’ve created a dilemma for both the selection committee and the G5 schools also in the running.
Thankfully, that potential for a problem appears to be past tense.
CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock says only the NY6 bowl spots impacted by the Army-Navy game will be left open until after Army-Navy.
— Ralph D. Russo (@ralphDrussoAP) June 16, 2015
.@CFBPlayoff selection committee will hold final ranking until after Navy-Army game if Navy or Army in running for semifinals or NY6 bowl
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) June 16, 2015
Even as the Mountain West likely won’t applaud the move, good for the folks at the CFP for coming up with a common sense solution that helps keep one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports where it rightly belongs: on a stage all by itself. so that every college football fan has the opportunity to take in the unique pageantry and history of the clash between a pair of military academies.
It’s very likely that, if Navy could potentially fill a NY6 slot, where they could go would be a limited field, meaning that the four CFP semifinalists will be known as well as the vast majority of NY6 matchups. That would allow most of the teams to begin postseason prep work for specific teams, if that was a concern by such teams/fans.
Of course, if either institution is in line for a playoff spot, the final set of rankings would be delayed until after the rivalry game is played.