Army and Navy love the grind so much they want to play more regular season games

The U.S. Army and Naval Academies had historic football seasons in 2024, reaching double-digit wins in the same year for the first time ever and challenging for a spot in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff.

Both the Black Knights and Midshipmen boasted talented quarterbacks who were, at one time, considered Heisman Trophy dark horses. Army's Bryson Daily (2,474 total yards, 38 total TDs) and Navy's Blake Horvath (2,607 total yards, 30 total TDs) put up impressive numbers in campaigns not seen since the days of Roger Staubach.

The year was wrapped by a massive 31-13 upset by Navy over its ranked archrival, the first time since 1957 that feat was achieved. Now, with the national spotlight on West Point and Annapolis in more ways than just focusing on the annual matchup, both programs are petitioning the NCAA to allow them to play more games than other schools.

Army and Navy want to play 13 regular season games in bid to boost future CFP resumes

According to the Capital Gazette's Bill Wagner, Army and Navy officially confirmed they've been in contact with the NCAA over being granted permission to play a 13th regular season game.

Both programs are members of the American Athletic Conference, of which Army won the conference title in its first year this season, and play 12 regular season games (including the Army-Navy Game). Their annual clash on neutral turf will continue being logged as a non-conference contest despite now sharing a league.

Being part of the Group of Five conferences, any bid by the AAC to earn the fifth conference champion auto-bid into the 12-team CFP field will be met with tough scrutiny due to the lack of quality in scheduling. Army and Navy, it seems, want to rectify that challenge by presumably putting an extra win on their resumes to compete with the Power Conference teams.

When the CFP was originally just four teams, language was included to hold off on announcing the field until after the Army-Navy Game if either were in contention for inclusion. Upon expansion to 12 teams, that language was removed and now the bracket is revealed before the two play.

It appears this 13th regular season game added to their schedules would be an effort to put them on a more level playing field and place the Army-Navy Game on a more prestigious, ceremonial pedestal. In order to do so, the NCAA would need to loosen its rules limiting teams to 12 regular season games or provide Army and Navy with a special waiver.

It's unclear if the NCAA will even consider the service academies' petition, let alone revise its rules to accommodate them, but it's a valiant effort to try and stay competitive in this new era of college football.