The saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” apparently doesn’t apply to the Army-Navy game.
No, changes aren’t coming to college football’s greatest rivalry—at least not yet—but that doesn’t mean one of the sport’s most prominent voices isn’t open to tweaking things.
In fact, Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt isn’t suggesting anything that would compromise the rivalry’s integrity.
Instead, his argument is that the college football calendar is “broken,” with the transfer portal, College Football Playoff, and other postseason events all colliding in December. Klatt wants to fix that—and moving the Army-Navy game up a few weeks is part of his solution.
Well, more than just a few weeks.
“What does this game have anything to do with the transfer portal? Well, like a lot of things in college football, this game is being squeezed,” Klatt explained. “It’s being squeezed by all this nonsense going on in the month of December. It used to be where Army-Navy had its own day. And in some ways, yes, that’s the case, but we play bowl games on Saturday — and we played Army-Navy on Saturday.
“And you’ve got the portal opened up, and now we’re trying to get the college football playoff getting started, and we’re announcing Heismans; we’re doing all of these different things. And guess what? This game that should be a showcase event for our country is being squeezed in multiple different directions.”
Klatt’s fix?
Clear out Army-Navy weekend to give the College Football Playoff an earlier start—and move Army-Navy to Week 0.
“Week 0. Think about it. Let me just paint the picture for just a moment,” Klatt continued. “No other football game happens in America until Army-Navy play on their own day. So there’s no college football in Week 0. No, no, no, not like we know it now where there’s these random games in random places, and some of them are played overseas, and so on and so forth…
“We kick our sport in America off with Army-Navy. It’s the only game, and it’s Week 0 of college football, and we blow it out. The commissioners of leagues are there — of the NFL; the president is there; there’s flyovers; we march cadet, and we do it at night. It’s on the network television, and, man, it is a showcase event. And every football fan in America is going to be right there.
“And guess what that game then signifies? That game is like the national anthem of the season. And it is the showcase game for our country that launches us into our favorite time of year, which is football season.
“Why? Because America… That game deserves that. It’s being squeezed right now. And we could showcase it better, and we could kick off the season, and guess what that would allow us to do? Start the College Football Playoff right away after the conference championship games. Start playing the games and finish the season before you start making roster moves…”
Klatt’s vision creates a domino effect — if you will. And while it’s a lot of things, it’s anything but short-sighted.
And while tweaking tradition is always a tough sell, it’s hard to argue against giving the Army-Navy game the spotlight it truly deserves, where it can stand alone, kicking off the season as a timeless tribute to football, rivalry and country.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.