Army will play for the American Athletic Conference championship against Tulane on Friday night, Dec. 6.
The only question remaining is where the game will be held—and a non-conference game for Army against No. 8-ranked Notre Dame next Saturday could determine the answer.
The AAC utilizes a complex set of tiebreakers if two teams finish the season with identical conference records. Right now, with Tulane knocking off Navy 35-0 on Saturday afternoon, both teams are 7-0, in league play. Tulane, 9-2 overall, finishes its league and regular season schedule on Thursday night, Nov. 28, when it hosts Memphis, which is also 9-2 overall and 5-2 in the AAC.
Army, 9-0 overall, faces Notre Dame in a non-conference game next Saturday night at Yankees Stadium. The Black Knights finish their conference slate when they host UTSA (5-5 overall and 3-3 in the AAC) on Saturday, Nov. 30 at Michie Stadium. Despite being in the same conference and as per agreement to encourage Army to join the AAC, the Black Knights will then meet Navy in non-conference matchup on Dec. 14 in Washington.
According to the AAC, if Army and Tulane both win their remaining league matchup, the team with the higher ranked College Football Playoff ranking on Tuesday, Nov. 26 will host the championship game. If both teams lose their final league game, the home team would be determined by an average of computer metrics after the conclusion of all games on Nov. 30. Obviously, if one team wins its last conference game and the other team loses, then the outright regular-season champion would host the game.
Right now, Army is ranked No. 24 in the College Football Playoff rankings and Tulane is ranked 25th. The Green Wave’s rout of Navy could move them ahead of the idle Black Knights this week, or an Army loss to Notre Dame could lower the Black Knights’ ranking in case of a tie after next weekend’s results.
Norm Remick
November 17, 2024 at 1:19 PM
After watching the Notre Dame-Virginia game, Army will have to go to the air against ND. They use 9 or 10 guys in the box routinely, too many guys for Army to block on run plays. They shut down the run.
Richard H. Roberts
November 17, 2024 at 4:07 PM
Army plays Navy on 12/14 not 12/7 which is the date of the AAC game with Tulane Green Wave . Army will have to beat ND or come very close to it to remain in the CFP rankings and hopefully be higher ranked than Tulane in those rankings in order to secure AAC home Field.