All FBS college football programs aim to play in one of six New Year’s Day bowl games, but one of the sport's greatest rivalries could automatically disqualify Navy.
The annual Army-Navy game is played on the second Saturday of December, the only game that weekend, so as not to share the national spotlight with other games. However, the final College Football Playoff rankings are set to be released the previous weekend, after the conclusion of conference championship games. And with Navy’s season not yet complete, they could miss out on one of those six New Year’s bowls.
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Navy joins the American Athletic Conference in 2015 and could conceivably win the conference and be the highest-ranked team from the Group of Five conferences (American Athletic, Mountain West, Conference USA, Mid-American and Sun Belt). The highest-ranked of those five conferences, if not in the College Football Playoff, will receive an automatic bid into the Peach Bowl or Fiesta Bowl.
However, if Navy can’t make its matchup with Army happen sooner, the Midshipmen's case might not matter.
"We are fully aware of the issues at hand and have already begun working toward a solution," American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco said, via the Capital Gazette. "There are some legitimate concerns, but nothing that cannot be overcome through discussion and creative thinking."
Sun Belt Conference commissioner Kurt Benson and Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson expressed their concerns of inequity if Navy’s final ranking doesn’t take the Army game into consideration.
"All games should be done by Selection Sunday for those teams to be considered for a College Football Playoff bowl," Thompson told ESPN.
Aresco hinted that a change will be made, but didn’t specify the suggested options.
"I think the consensus is that you would want to somehow consider the Army-Navy result. I think there are some contingencies you could put into place to allow that to happen," he said.