The NCAA Football Oversight Committee is expected to consider allowing Army and Navy to each play an extra regular-season game prior to the American Athletic Conference championship game in early December, multiple sources told CBS Sports.
Not counting that championship game, such a move would mean both service academies would play 13 total games, including their traditional rivalry game the second weekend of December. Such a change would require the NCAA to modify its rules that limit teams to 12 regular-season games.
The oversight committee is “likely to revisit” the NCAA rule that sets that limit when it next meets early in 2025, sources tell CBS Sports. Before that date, the 10 FBS commissioners are expected to take up the topic during their annual meeting at the site of the College Football Playoff National Championship Game next month, on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
Army AD Mike Buddie told CBS Sports the prospect of an additional game had been a talking point for at least a year after the Black Knights decided to join the American Athletic Conference.
Both Army and Navy were then in CFP competition late into the season, playing in the same conference.
“When it was a four-team playoff, there was language in the agreement that if Army or Navy was in consideration, they would hold off on the [CFP] announcement until after the Army-Navy game,” Buddie said. “When they switched to the 12-team playoff, they removed that language, which essentially rendered the Army-Navy game irrelevant for conference standings and irrelevant as a data point for the CFP.
“So it makes sense for Chet [Gladchuk, Navy AD] and I to approach it from this angle.”
Such rule changes usually begin in the form of proposals that come from conferences. According to the NCAA, the oversight committee then is allowed to make rulings on “playing and practice seasons,” as well as “processes and procedures related to the administration of the regular season and championship.” Oversight can also introduce legislation to be considered for passage by the NCAA Council.
NCAA Bylaw 17.11 sets the maximum number of regular-season FBS games at 12. Bylaw 17.11.4.1 allows a 13th game for teams that play a regular-season game in Hawaii.
Such a rule change would also impact the Big Ten if it follows through with its “Championship Saturday” playoff play-in concept detailed by CBS Sports earlier this month. That concept is not on the next oversight committee agenda and would be complicated as it requires the approval of automatic playoff qualifiers. That’s an ongoing CFP issue. AQs are once again expected to be taken up by the FBS commissioners and Notre Dame early next year. Changes could be adopted as early as February and be implemented beginning in the 2026 season.
However, the Army-Navy issue has been a talking point among the FBS commissioners since at least last spring. Army’s first season in the American forced clarification on the service academies’ game since they were both in the same league. The Army-Navy contest continues to be a non-conference game and does not count toward playoff consideration, coming six days after the CFP field is finalized.
Moving the Army-Navy game off its traditional date was not a consideration, Buddie said.
However, both schools played only 11 regular-season games before the conference championship weekend. This year, those dates were Dec. 8-9. That theoretically put the Black Knights and Midshipmen at a disadvantage, playing one less game — thus, one less “data point,” as Buddie mentioned, for the CFP selection committee to consider.
“We thought, ‘Hey, give us the opportunity if we want to schedule a 12th data point and be on the same footing with, for example, a Boise State this year, to have that option,'” Buddie said.
Both Army and Navy started 6-0 together for the first time since 1945. The academies were each in the AP Top 25 for the first time since 1960. They were in competition for an automatic CFP berth by being one of the top-five ranked FBS conference champions. Army won the American in its first season in the league, defeating Tulane earlier this month. Boise State was higher ranked and got that automatic CFP berth. Navy beat Army, 31-13, on Dec. 14 and beat Oklahoma in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl to reach the 10-win mark.
In the future, that extra game for both Army and Navy would most likely be a non-conference contest. As it stands, Army and Navy each play three non-conference games. The remainder of the American plays four such games.
Army typically has a bye week before the Air Force and Navy games (if not involved in the American championship game). Buddie added there could be years not to schedule a 13th game when those bye weeks are impacted.
Playing on Week Zero to accommodate that extra game was not an option, Buddie said, because of rigorous offseason training undergone by cadets each year.
Buddie said he first contacted former CFP executive director Bill Hancock about adding a game last offseason. The issue, though, eventually rests with the NCAA.
Buddie also said adding the extra game might be “too big a hurdle” to implement by next season.
“We just think to have the option is worth pursuing,” Buddie said.
The oversight committee next meets Jan. 30 by videoconference and on Feb. 10-11 in person at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis.
The 18-person committee is chaired by Buffalo AD Mark Alnutt.
