Looking at the Season Bookends

I'm having a blast watching Pitt's Blue/Gold game - somehow they made a deal to have it aired on the NFL Network, so now my Saturday afternoon just became a lot more sitty-drinky.

A deal like that makes me wonder what it would take for Army to get their spring game aired on TV. They have an existing regular season deal with CBS College Sports Network, and god knows that station didn't air anything important on the day of the Black/Gold game... it was the same NCAA tournament recap that they had been replaying for at least 14 straight hours. CBS College Sports has taken leaps and strides since transforming from CSTV, but if they want to compete with the other all-sports networks, adding unique content will go a long way to competing with the true 24+ hour sports Networks. Anyway, I'm over it, but maybe next year we'll see Army's spring game on national TV.

An Army scheduling note: the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl has given Army a bowl tie-in for 2010. The deal stipulates that Army has to be eligible to participate before the
Army/Navy game on December 11... which means they'll have to have six wins through their Nov. 20th meeting with Notre Dame. It's not ideal that Army has only 11 games to get their 6 wins... but overall it's really a nonfactor... conference bowl tie-ins require 7 wins to get a bowl birth, and six for at large eligibility. Army with their deal only needs six to get in, and considering their schedule if the Black Knights don't have 6 wins by Nov 13th then they probably won't deserve a bowl bid. The Armed Services Bowl wants to solidify its participants and activities as early as possible, and considering the game is played in late December, making sure Army is eligible before Dec, 11th is a necessary stipulation to giving them the bowl bid.

I don't know Army's likelihood of garnering an at-large bowl bid with 6 wins... but even if Army gains bowl eligibility late against Navy I think most bowl bids will already be handed out. This is the only serious drawback I can think of with having Army/Navy so late in the season... but until this setup lets Army down I'll support the later Army Navy game.