Joel Klatt calls for Army-Navy to be moved to Week Zero, start College Football Playoff earlier

Fox Sports’ Joel Klatt called for the Army–Navy game to be moved to Week Zero to kick off the season and move up the College Football Playoff a week earlier.

With the way the schedule was this season, Army-Navy was in its traditional spot of the week after conference championships and it was the only game in town. However, the CFP doesn’t start until this Friday.

Plus, Army just played in a conference championship game that, hypothetically, could’ve been against Navy the previous week! So, Klatt called for a glorious kickoff event.

“Think about it, let me just paint the picture for just a moment,” Klatt said on his podcast. “No other football game happens in America until Army-Navy play on their own day. So there’s no college football in Week Zero … We kick our sport in America off with Army-Navy. It’s the only game, and it’s Week Zero of college football, and we blow it out. The commissioners of leagues are there, of the NFL, the President is there, there’s flyovers. 

“We march cadets, and we do it at night. It’s on the network television, and, man, it is a showcase event, and every football fan in America is going to be right there, because guess what? That game is like the national anthem to the season, and it is the showcase game for our country that launches us into our favorite time of year, which is football season. Why? Because ‘Merica.”

What would’ve been fascinating, if Army was undefeated and played Navy in the AAC Championship Game, it could’ve been a play-in game to get into the College FOotball Playoff for the Black Knights.

Take that for instance and then say it happened and Navy ended up beating Army the following week. The second game wouldn’t count towards the playoff.
So with this idea from Klatt, Army-Navy could still be standalone and actually have CFP and AAC implications across the board. Plus, the playoffs can start a week earlier.

“That game deserves that, it is being squeezed right now,” Klatt said. “We could showcase it better, and we could kick off the season. And guess what? That would allow us to start the College Football Playoff right away after the conference championship games, start playing the games and finish your season before you start making roster moves. 

“So then you can start the College Football Playoff right away, conference championship games the first week in December, first round playoff games the second week of December, third week in December: quarterfinal games, fourth week of December: semi final games. And guess what? We are finishing the college football season at the latest, the week of January 1st.”