The college football regular season doesn’t end with conference championship weekend. It ends with the Army-Navy Game, and this Saturday we will see the 124th meeting between Army and Navy on the football field. It’s a game that is part of the very foundation of college football with one of the greatest atmospheres in American sports.
This year’s game will be the end of an era of sorts. A longtime independent, Army will join Navy as a member of the American Athletic Conference in 2024 with one exception: The rivalry will continue every year but will not act as a conference game to avoid disruption with its title race. However, that means there’s a chance that one day Army and Navy could meet in the AAC’s title game and then play in the Army-Navy Game the next week.
Wouldn’t that be something?
As for this year’s game, Army has had the better of the series in recent years. It won 20-17 in a double-overtime thriller last season and has won five of the last seven.
Army vs. Navy: Need to know
The Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy is on the line: Having already lost to Air Force this season, Navy isn’t eligible for the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy this year. But a win over Army on Saturday would create a three-way tie, in which case the Falcons would keep the CiC Trophy by virtue of being last year’s winner. An Army win over Navy would give the Knights the trophy.
A win will not send either team to a bowl game: Both teams enter the game with records of 5-6, but the winner will not be going bowling after all the bowl slots were filled. Minnesota received a bowl bit at 5-7 because there was no guarantee either of these teams would be bowl eligible. If Army wins the game it will be 6-6, but two of its wins came against FCS opponents and FBS schools are only allowed to count one win against FCS teams toward bowl eligibility.
This marks the first time the rivalry will be played in Massachusetts: Philadelphia has been the most common location of the Army-Navy Game, hosting it 90 times in its history, but this season’s game has a new location. Foxborough, Massachusetts becomes the eleventh host site, with this season’s game being played at Gillette Stadium, the home of the New England Patriots. It’ll be nice for Patriots fans to see teams score points in a football game this year. Some other surprising host cities over the years have been Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1926 and the Rose Bowl in…
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