IRVING, Texas — The Navy game will not affect the six-day selection process for the 12-team College Football Playoff, CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said Wednesday, a change in policy from the four-team format. teams.
The tournament is historically held on the second Saturday of December, after the final CFP rankings are announced. Academy officials did not want to move the annual competition back to the previous schedule to accommodate the final rankings in the 12-team playoff period.
Army and Navy were hoping the CFP would consider the idea of seeding 11 of the 12 teams and having each academy be in the mix as American Athletic Conference champions. Previously, in the four-team CFP/New Year’s Six format, the committee had to wait for Navy if it was in the top four or if Navy could finish as the highest-ranked conference champion in Group 5, which it almost happened. in 2016. Instead, Navy lost the AAC championship game to end its hopes of a Cotton Bowl bid.
But CFP officials decided this week at their annual spring meetings that they cannot require a CFP participant to wait a full week to study an opponent with a shorter rotation before the start of the 12-team playoffs. First round games are played on campus the week after Navy.
“There are a lot of challenges awaiting a week in the 12-team playoffs, and you have little time,” AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco said. “It’s the same thing across four teams and you don’t play until the end of the month. This game is very different (in two weeks).
The new policy opens up a scenario in which Army or Navy could win the AAC and qualify for the CFP as the G5 top champions, then lose to another academy six days later and still advance to the CFP.
Army will join the AAC as a football member this year, but its annual game will remain a non-conference game. This is due to both the game’s uniqueness on the schedule and the game’s contract with CBS (the AAC has an exclusive contract with ESPN for conference games). If Army and Navy reached the AAC Championship, they would play in consecutive weeks.
• Hancock also said Wednesday that the CFP will not postpone its three first-round games from the third Saturday in December. Pack reported that the NFL was upset that the CFP would hold games on that day, the first Saturday of the year, that NFL games can be played, as permitted by the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.
“I read. I don’t see it,” Hancock said. “Can we play on Thursday or more than one game on Friday? There are no big options. We ended up being an option that ESPN was happy with.”
• Washington Athletic Director Pat Chun has resigned from the CFP selection committee due to his departure from the Washington AD. Hancock said the PCP will find a new committee member to fill Chun’s three-year term.
• The CFP also increased its travel budget for team family members, from $1.5 million for three games to $7.5 million for 11 games.
(Photo: Danny Wilde/USA Today)
2024-06-06 00:59:36
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