{"id":489740,"date":"2026-02-25T14:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489740\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T14:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:26:19","slug":"jeff-monken-recommends-army-vs-navy-game-be-moved-to-thanksgiving-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/489740\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Monken recommends Army vs. Navy game be moved to Thanksgiving weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Army<\/a> head coach Jeff Monken<\/a> believes the historic Army-Navy<\/a> Game may need to move on the calendar. The idea is to preserve both the relevance of the game and the evolving College Football Playoff<\/a> structure.<\/p>\n

With the CFP eyeing a schedule shift that would push the postseason up to avoid stretching into late January, Monken suggested<\/a> relocating the rivalry matchup to Thanksgiving weekend. With one caveat, though, the game\u2019s signature exclusivity must remain intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not an appetite for the college football season to go all the way to the end of January,\u201d Monken told<\/a> The Athletic via Awful Announcing<\/a>. \u201cThere\u2019s a real hope that we can get this thing into one semester, and have the championship game around Jan. 1, which I think would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alas, the Army-Navy Game was typically played the first weekend in December prior to 2009. In recent years, it\u2019s occupied its own standalone slot following conference championship weekend, complete with a four-hour exclusive television window. Of course, that\u2019s rare in today\u2019s crowded media landscape.<\/p>\n

Monken isn\u2019t opposed to moving the game. But he feels that the window must remain protected if the game does indeed move.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive us a four-hour block on Thanksgiving, or on Friday of Thanksgiving, or on Saturday of Thanksgiving, and give us a four-hour block, and just say nobody else plays during this four-hour block,\u201d Monken added<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s still protecting the game. I think Army-Navy is a huge part of the history of college football, and what it is today, even.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Jeff Monken, Army-Navy Game<\/p>\n

It all sounds well and good. However, the challenge is logistics. Per usual, Thanksgiving Day features a full slate of NFL games.\u00a0On the other hand, Black Friday has increasingly become a football property of its own, with both college and pro matchups occupying valuable television real estate. <\/p>\n

By Saturday, the college football regular season reaches a rivalry crescendo. Then, Sunday belongs to the NFL. Regardless, conversations appear to be underway for a move. <\/p>\n

According to a December report<\/a> from the Sports Business Journal via Awful Announcing<\/a>, administrators from both service academies have held early-stage discussions about how an expanded playoff could impact the game\u2019s standalone positioning in mid-December.<\/p>\n

There have even been political rumblings. In January, President Donald Trump said<\/a> he would sign an executive order to protect the Army-Navy game\u2019s exclusive four-hour window. Questions remain about how enforceable such a move would be, though.<\/p>\n

All told, the core priority is simple for Monken, as he wants to preserve the tradition while adapting to a changing landscape in college football. If the playoff calendar shifts, the Army-Navy Game may have to move with it, but it doesn\u2019t want to move without the spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Army head coach Jeff Monken believes the historic Army-Navy Game may need to move on the calendar. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,82536,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-489740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-jeff-monken","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}