Army football coach Jeff Monken favors moving the historic Army-Navy game to Thanksgiving weekend, he told The Athletic, a move that could free up the College Football Playoff to start a week earlier.
The Army-Navy game has been played on the second Saturday of December since 2009 to stand apart from conference championship games. Prior to that, it was usually played the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend, protecting it from being played amid other rivalry games.
But Monken, who has been Army’s coach since 2014, believes it would be best for the two teams and college football to move the game to Thanksgiving weekend. One of the stated reasons for the first round of the CFP beginning two weeks after conference championship weekend is to protect the Army-Navy game. Monken, like many coaches, wants the Playoff to move up, and is willing to remove the Army-Navy game as an obstacle.
“There’s not an appetite for the college football season to go all the way to the end of January,” Monken said. “There’s a real hope that we can get this thing into one semester, and have the championship game around Jan. 1, which I think would be awesome.”
That seems ambitious, especially with the likely expansion of the CFP to at least 16 teams, perhaps more. However, starting the Playoff the week after conference championships would allow the schedule to move up, perhaps leading to the championship game being around Jan. 8, as it was during the four-team Playoff. Another possibility is eliminating conference championships and starting the Playoff that weekend.
Either way, Monken would be fine with Army-Navy moving off its protected weekend, which also leads to a quirk in the system: Army-Navy is played after the CFP field is selected, even though both teams can make it.
Under the current CFP format, Monken doesn’t like having his team play its main rival in between the conference championship and a first-round CFP game. If the format changes, he still sees moving the game to Thanksgiving as better for both teams.
“That’s the reason we got into the American Conference. We needed to have a pathway to the playoffs. Without a pathway to the playoffs, you’re irrelevant,” Monken said.
Navy eeked out a one-point victory in the most recent Army-Navy game, its second straight win in the annual matchup. (Ishika Samant / Getty Images)
Protecting the game has drawn high-level interest: President Donald Trump said in January he would sign an executive order saying Army-Navy would maintain an exclusive four-hour television window. It’s not clear how enforceable the order would be.
Monken’s suggestion is to make sure Army-Navy has an exclusive window on Thanksgiving weekend.
“I think Army-Navy is a huge part of the history of college football, and what it is today, even. Give us a four-hour block on Thanksgiving, or on Friday of Thanksgiving, or on Saturday of Thanksgiving, and give us a four-hour block, and just say nobody else plays during this four-hour block,” Monken said. “That’s still protecting the game.”
Given that every FBS team is playing on Thanksgiving weekend, such a move would not be easy, especially with multiple television partners. Still, if there’s enough motivation to move the calendar up, it has a chance.
Monken said he believes his athletic director is also in favor of moving the game. He was not sure about Navy, saying he would allow his bosses to have the conversations with the Army counterparts.
This would benefit the two teams, Monken said, because they both want to be in the Playoff picture. He pointed to the 2024 season, when his Army team went 11-1, its lone loss to Notre Dame, and would have been in the CFP as the best Group of 5 team if not for Boise State.
“It is possible for us to be in the playoffs,” Monken said. “But the problem becomes is if they expand the playoffs, or they move the playoffs to start at an earlier date, that would essentially force us to say, OK, do you play in the playoffs, or you play the Army-Navy game. Well, what kind of decision is that? We want to do both. So the only way we can do both is to move the Army-Navy game to Thanksgiving weekend.”