(03-31-2016 04:12 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote: (03-31-2016 03:49 PM)panama Wrote: (03-31-2016 03:19 PM)fishpro1098 Wrote: (03-31-2016 02:23 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: (03-31-2016 01:59 PM)DrBox Wrote: But wouldn't that have the threat of diminishing the value and brand of the game very quickly. It has essentially become an exhibition game under that scenario, when the teams are in the same league and it means nothing in the league standings, etc.
Why? Its the exact same scenario as it is now. Its a free standing game that affects no conference standings.
Its currently an OOC game for Navy with absolutely no ramifications in their conference standings. Army isn't in a conference, so its never had any significance in any conference standings for them either.
The only difference in housing Navy, Army, and AF under one roof is that all the Commander Cup games fall under the AAC television deal. Two of the 3 would be regular conference games---mainly because the timing of those games has no historical significance. On the other hand, the timing of the Army-Navy game is a significant factor in its value. I wouldn't want to mess with its timing.
Having Army and Navy in the same conference---yet keeping the game as an OOC game, maintaining its special time slot, and having them NEVER meet in conference play just increases the unique nature of the game in my humble opinion. It would be one of those cool little quirks that makes college football so unique.
So would Army and Navy have to be in opposite divisions for that to happen? Can't recall if each division opponent has to play everyone else in the same division. If so, what if Army and Navy were the champions in each division. Would that game become the championship game? Oh the possibilities.
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But Army doesnt want to be in a conference....
Why? It's just the AAC...it's not like they couldn't compete here lol.
They couldn't beat Yale and New Hampshire when they played them.
Also they currently play 2 - 1AA schools a year and at least on of them comes from the Patriot League (Lafayette, Bucknell, Fordham, and Lehigh).
Yet they are still viewed as P5 competition for the ACC and the SEC so Boston College, Wake Forest, Duke, and Vandy can play them because they have a lot of history with those schools and those schools could potentially beat Army to beef up their OOC wins to get to bowl eligibility at the end of the year.
Wish they could get back on track and win and be competitive like Navy and Air Force again. They sure have fallen on hard times in recent DECADES. Even though they are a great academic institution with past great football history and their players go on to serve and protect this great nation of ours I would let them out there as an independent until they can become competitive again. They are scheduling smaller schools like Boston College, Wake, Duke, Rice, VMI, Fordham, Lafayette, Bucknell, Stony Brook, and Morgan State, that are to do just that at this time. Throw those schools in with a couple of MACS (Buffalo, Eastern Michigan), a couple of AAC teams they play regularly (Temple, UConn, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa), their annual games with Air Force and Navy, their games with Rutgers which float in and out routinely, and one body bag game a year with other P5 schools like ND, Penn St, and Ohio St, then maybe they can get back to respectability with 6&6 and 7&5 seasons. Then they might be comfortable joining a conference again like the AAC. But for now their best bet to get there is to remain independent with the scheduling model they are using now especially with 2 - 1AA teams a year. They can get bowl contracts, TV contracts ($5 million alone for the annual Army - Navy Game each year), fill out their schedule annually with no problems and get P5 schools to play them with their past history with no problems that other G5 schools can't. Finally financial survival is not a problem for West Point because they have the deep pockets of the Federal Government and the American Taxpayers with their primary Mission to Protect and Serve the United States of America like the Air Force and Naval Academies.
