The Army Black Knights entered Week 15 in a different position than other College Football Playoff contenders. While a handful of teams playing in their conference championship games were guaranteed a berth in the playoffs, only Army had the chance to keep their season rolling without skipping a beat — playing Navy in ‘Week 16’ and hopefully making the playoffs as the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion.
And so, the question begs to be asked, after handling business against the Tulane Green Wave for the AAC Championship, can Army actually make the playoffs with the Army-Navy Game still on the horizon?
Army Playoff Chances Take Major Hit on Friday
Despite controlling the game against Tulane early and often, the Black Knights had little chance of making the playoffs as they entered the week. Army needed two things to happen, one of which was handling Tulane so dominantly that they could be in question to move up more than just a handful of places in the rankings.
And the other thing that Army needed to happen was UNLV knocking off Boise State in an upset, and particularly close, hard-fought outing.
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If these two situations presented themselves, it would have been a long shot for Army to make the playoffs. The reasoning behind that is simple: Army would still find themselves behind UNLV—the other ranked G5 conference champion—in the iteration of the playoff rankings from this week and would need a miracle to move above UNLV, who, in this scenario, would have just beaten a top-12 Boise State team.
Similarly, Army knew going into their game against Tulane that a Boise State win would have secured Boise’s place as a top-four team in the playoffs, thus eliminating Army from any sort of miracle contention. And as Army dominated, so did Boise State against UNLV on Friday night.
So what about as an at-large team? Could Army push for that?
Sadly, for fans of the Black Knights, despite just one loss on the season, Army was not considered in the ballpark of the three three-loss SEC teams or even a two-loss Miami team that was just eliminated from ACC contention a week ago. Those teams are set to make up the final teams considered for the last at-large playoff bid.
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Army’s dream season was already set to include the program’s first-ever conference championship game appearance, and now, following their dominant showing against Tulane, it includes their first conference championship game victory.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the Black Knights’ dream season will include a berth in the college football playoffs. But unlike the other opponents who find themselves angry and frustrated at missing the playoffs, Army can take out their frustrations on their next opponent.
And for that, Navy should be very aware next week.
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