Army, Navy have no plans to move game for College Football Playoff schedule

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Army and Navy do not plan to change the date of their traditional end-of-season meeting to accommodate the final College Football Playoff rankings, which for the next four seasons are set to be unveiled before the service academies' annual matchup.

"We have no intention of moving it. None," Navy athletics director Chet Gladchuk told USA TODAY Sports. "It would show that we've realigned our priorities in a way that doesn't complement our mission. We can't do it. It's something that's that special."

In 2015 the Playoff selection committee is scheduled to release its final rankings on Dec. 6, the day after several Football Bowl Subdivision conferences hold their championship games. That weekend concludes the regular season for every FBS team but two: Army and Navy will meet at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Dec. 12.

"If it means that we've got to sacrifice the opportunity to participate in the playoff system, then that's something we'll have to deal with," Gladchuk said. "We'll have to work on that."

The regular-season finale has been held since 2009 on the Saturday following conference championship weekend across the FBS, standing alone after the major bowls have selected their participants — or, in the case of the Playoff, after the selection committee chooses the teams for the two national semifinals and the four access bowls.

In 2008, the two service academies agreed to a 10-year broadcast agreement with CBS that will keep the game on the second Saturday of December through 2018. Navy has won 13 games in a row in the series, which began in 1890.

"I think it is a stand-alone game," Army athletics director Boo Corrigan said. "I think we do hold a place in the history of college football. And the idea of that game being a stand-alone is very, very important to us."

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Though both Army and Navy were eligible for the Playoff in the format's debut season in 2014, the rivals' FBS independence limited each to inclusion in one of the two national semifinals; non-Power Five FBS programs without any conference affiliation — Army, Navy and Brigham Young — are not included among those teams that can earn an access-bowl invite by virtue of being the highest-rated champion of a Group of Five league.

In 2014, the selection committee's pick from the Group of Five was Boise State, which went on to defeat Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.

But this season, after more than a century of independence, Navy begins competing in the American Athletic Conference; that puts the Midshipmen on an even plane with the rest of the Group of Five landscape, meaning the team has the opportunity to win its conference and earn an automatic access-bowl bid.

"I think everyone goes in with those kind of goals," Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. "Every non-BCS team wants to go to (an access bowl). You want to be that school. It's what you shoot for. Just like the big guys, if you're part of that, you want to be in the final four.

"There's some stuff that I'm not sure how it's going to work out. But if we don't win, it's a moot point. Even if we do win and it may be a point where we kind of get screwed a little bit … If it's out of your control you can't worry about it."

Army, which remains an independent, would fall under the same criteria as last season; the only way the Cadets could reach the Playoff is by finishing among the top four teams in the final Playoff rankings.

"From our standpoint, if we're in a situation where we're 11-0 going into that game, that's a great story for college football," Corrigan said. "That's a great story for Army West Point. Let's get to that point and make it be a story."

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Finding a solution that would work for all involved parties, an effort spearheaded by American commissioner Mike Aresco, was a topic of conversation at a late April Playoff meeting attended by conference commissioners. Coming out of those meetings, College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock mentioned "robust talks" on the topic but no definitive resolution for the conflict.

Hancock reiterated in an email to USA TODAY Sports that the discussions are continuing and that "they are positive."

In a letter sent in advance of the recent Playoff meetings on Apr. 27, Gladchuk asked Aresco to "share with our colleagues how important this day remains for hundreds of thousands of military and their families throughout the world."

The letter continued, "Please convey to our conference associates the national importance of keeping this cherished tribute on its exclusive television date, thus protecting the respect and dignity justifiably afforded a 116-year national treasure."

A potential solution, one palatable to Gladchuk and Niumatalolo, would be to provide a hypothetical with the final rankings. In a situation where Navy enters the Army game as the top-ranked non-major-conference champion — having concluded league play one week before — the committee could elect to place the Midshipmen in an access bowl with one caveat: that it defeat Army to end the regular season. The committee would also provide a backup access-bowl participant in case of a Navy defeat.

"What I'm hopeful what will happen is that there will be a respect, there will be an appreciation, an awareness of that being America's game," Gladchuk said. "And there will be the exception made — which can be made, because the decisions are being made by people, not by computers.

"They're tweaking everything with the system. So this is just one more tweak that I'm hopeful that we can get cooperation by the group to allow us to continue."

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