Army-Navy Game to Thanksgiving weekend? Shift proposed to help CFP schedule

The Army-Navy game, which has been played on the second Saturday in December since 2009, has been the center of recent discussions regarding expansion and College Football Playoff scheduling due to its unique placement in the regular season schedule. In a departure from recent tradition, Army coach Jeff Monken said he would like to see the historic rivalry game moved up a week to pave the way for an earlier start to the CFP.

The rivalry series, nicknamed “America’s Game,” holds its contests the week after the conference championship games in order to maintain its own time slot. The pageantry and tradition involved in one of college football’s most storied rivalries has long justified the split window. But amid calls for the season to end sooner than the end of January, Monken said it was necessary to move the Army-Navy game back to Thanksgiving weekend.

“There’s no appetite for the college football season until the end of January,” Monken told The Athletic. “There’s real hope that we can put this together in one semester and have the championship game around Jan. 1, which I think would be awesome.”

Because the CFP avoids broadcast competition with the NFL and prioritizes giving teams a full week between games, the playoff schedule for the next two years comes with long layoffs (nearly two weeks between rounds) and national championship games scheduled for January 25-24.

If the Army-Navy game were to move back to Thanksgiving weekend, or even conference championship week, the CFP could start a week earlier and thus prevent such late-winter championship games.

Any proposal to move the annual competition from its protected window would likely be rebuffed. President Donald Trump said last month that he planned to sign an executive order that would prevent any football game from playing the Army-Navy game. This happened after kickoff of the now-defunct LA Bowl, a half-hour into the 2025 bracket.

“I think Army and Navy is a big part of the history of college football, and even what it is today,” Monken said. “Give us a four-hour block on Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Friday, or Thanksgiving Saturday, and give us a four-hour block, and just say no one else plays during that four-hour block. That still protects the game.”

The Army-Navy series began in 1890 and the football game has been played every year since 1930. Navy holds an all-time advantage of 64-55-7 and has won the last two meetings, including a 17-16 thriller last season.

CBS Sports has owned broadcast rights to the Army-Navy game since 1996 and will continue to broadcast the game on its networks through 2038. The 2026 meeting will take place Dec. 12 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, as part of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9/11.