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Joel Klatt doesn’t want the traditional Army-Navy game played in the middle of December anymore. He doesn’t want it at the end of the regular season.
The FOX college football analyst believes the Black Knights and Midshipmen should put on their annual football show at the start of the season, when other factors aren’t stealing the spotlight from one of college football’s treasured events.
“It’s getting pinched by the Heisman (Trophy). It’s getting pinched by the Playoff. We now play a bowl game on the same day. It’s not in the right spot. Army-Navy needs to start the football season,” suggested Klatt on Wednesday during his Joel Klatt Show podcast.
For traditionalists who enjoy the whole Army-Navy spectacle at the end of the regular season, Klatt’s suggestion probably isn’t a welcomed idea. But Klatt wants better for the Army-Navy game, and he knows that the Heisman Trophy presentation is annually placed just a few hours after the completion of the Army-Navy game.
This season’s inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff started on Dec. 20, less than a week after the Army-Navy game was played on Dec. 14. Klatt mentioned a bowl game now being played on the same day as Army-Navy, but there were actually 2 bowl games played on the same day.
Time will tell if Klatt’s somewhat radical idea carries any weight on the Army-Navy game being moved.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.