How Army, Navy Football Impacted After NCAA Tables Proposal For 13th Game

By not taking up a proposal to allow Army and Navy to play an additional regular-season game, the NCAA is hurting their potential playoff resume.

Matt Postins | Mar 27, 2025

Photos from #22 Army vs. Louisiana Tech in the Radiance Technology Independence Bowl on Saturday, December 28, 2024, in Shreveport, LA / Paul Karge/The Shreveport Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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The Army West Point Black Knights football team did many things that it hadn’t done before last season.

Among those accomplishments was being ranked in the College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings for the first time. By season’s end, the Black Knights were ranked No. 22 in the final poll.

That wasn’t enough to get the Black Knights in the playoff, of course. Boise State was ranked well ahead of them and claimed the berth awarded to the highest-ranked Group of 5 conference champion.

But, under different circumstances, Army could have been a contender. The Black Knights were just 11-1, including the American Athletic Conference title game victory. Every other conference champion played 13 games. Why? Army and Navy play their annual game in mid-December.

Per their agreement with the AAC, the Army-Navy game is a non-conference game. All parties did that to ensure the game would remain on its traditional weekend and wouldn’t impact the playoff.

But Army got close enough for both the Black Knights and the Midshipmen to petition the NCAA for the opportunity to play a 13th game, a request that was tabled earlier this month.

Per a CBS Sports report, there “no support” for the measure.

For now, both schools field a schedule with three non-conference games and eight league games before the AAC title game. Then, the week following, Army and Navy play their annual rivalry game. Both Army and Navy, along with the AAC, is committed to continuing the Army-Navy game on that weekend.

The NCAA limits all programs to 12 regular season games, with the only exception given to those teams that play a regular-season game in Hawai’i. In that case, those teams can play a 13th game.

Army and Navy were petitioning for another regular-season game it could play before the AAC title game, giving both the Black Knights and the Midshipmen an extra regular-season game — likely a non-conference game — to add to its credentials in case it is being considered for the CFP. A 12th game before the AAC title game and Army-Navy would at least allow those schools to be on a similar footing to the rest of the schools being considered.

For now, the two programs will have to live with 11 regular season games and, potentially, the AAC title game, to make its case to the CFP committee. The impact in a season where either team is undefeated after the AAC title game can’t be understated. It could be the difference between a playoff berth and a trip to the Independence Bowl.

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