The Army-Navy rivalry game remains of the great traditions of college football, being such a historic game that it gets its own day on the schedule late in the year, but just like everything involving college football, that’s about to change.
Due to the expanded College Football Playoff and the new bowl schedule, the Army-Navy game will no longer be a standalone game and will be played on the same day as two Bowl games this December.
Army-Navy will share Sat., Dec. 14 with the Celebration Bowl, which kicks off at 12 p.m. Eastern and with the Camellia Bowl, set for 9 p.m. Eastern that night.
Army and Navy will square off in its usual 3 p.m. Eastern time slot that day.
Bowl Season director Nick Carparelli explained the reasons for the change.
“Obviously the expanded College Football Playoff is going to add another level of excitement to our postseason,” Carparelli said.
“With the opening-round games being played on that Saturday that had traditionally been reserved for the first day of bowl season, we were forced to move some games to the week prior to that, notably two games on Dec. 14, which were scheduled around the Army-Navy game.”
Carparelli went on to say, “it was very important to us that we protected that time slot but at the same time providing a full day of college football, which I think our fans will enjoy.”
Those aren’t the only college football-related events taking place on Dec. 14 of this year: the Heisman Trophy is also scheduled to be awarded at 8 p.m. Eastern the same night.
