In the brave new college football world, no tradition is safe.
Those traditions will always be sacred. Those rivalries, however, are getting more and more alterations to that fabric – and that is evident on the 2024 college football schedule.
That trend continued Monday when it was announced the Army-Navy game – the ultimate passion-meets-pageantry rivalry that started in 1890 – will not be a stand-alone game on Dec. 14, the week after the conference championships. The rivalry has had the Saturday to itself since 2009.
Now, it will share the spotlight with the Celebration Bowl – which is the HBCU championship game – and the Camellia – which is the start of the Bowl Season outside the 12-team College Football Playoff.
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It’s yet another example of the cost of the new viewing experience. Is it a big deal? Well, that depends on your view on how much that tradition really means. In 2019, Sporting News ranked the top 10 rivalries of all time in college football. The nature of half of those rivalries have been altered in the last five years.
– USC-UCLA (No. 9) – schools that combined for 46 Rose Bowl appearances in the Pac-12 – now will play a Big Ten conference matchup. That’s right, the best uniform color combination in the sport now has a Big Ten patch.
– Utah-BYU (No. 8) is now a Big 12 game. The Utes and Cougars will meet for the first time since 2021 this season.
– Ole Miss-Mississippi State (No. 7) is moving from Thanksgiving to Black Friday. Georgia-Georgia Tech also will be moved from Saturday to Black Friday.
– Texas-Oklahoma (No. 4) is an SEC game that will move off its traditional 11 a.m. CT spot to a later afternoon experience at the Cotton Bowl. At least we get Texas-Texas A&M on Nov. 30 in return. That’s a fair trade.
Now, Army-Navy (No. 3) has changed its time slot, and it is an American Athletic Conference game. These schools are no longer independent schools, and that date is likely subject to change in the future.
That SN 150 list did not list Oklahoma-Oklahoma State – a move that cannot be considered an omission now because Bedlam is off the schedule. Oregon-Oregon State is now a non-conference game on Sept. 14 – and the Pac-12 is no longer a football conference.
Again, all of this happened in the last few years. How much more evidence do you need to support the argument that the other half of those top-10 rivalries could be changed in the near future? Tradition will not be considered.
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A look at some college football rivalries that have not been impacted yet by conference realignment for television times. Which ones could change in the future?
The Buckeyes and Wolverines are the 1A and 1B of the Big Ten, but will that change with the arrival of USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington? The possibility of a rematch in the Big Ten championship the week after The Game has opened a previously-unthinkable discussion about moving the regular-season matchup to earlier in the season. Would a last-week-in-September-edition make more sense? Our stance? Let’s wait until the Buckeyes and Wolverines meet in a Big Ten championship game – and then make a determination whether it makes sense to move The Game from there. Until then, there is no reason to change the No. 1 rivalry in all of college football.
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It is the best in-state rivalry in college football – and it ranked No. 2 on our list. Even more than Ohio State-Michigan, this one likely would be met with more resistance if it were changed in any fashion. The SEC still has a traditional eight-game schedule, and moving the Iron Bowl does not make sense in the current landscape, especially with Kalen DeBoer and Hugh Freeze starting a new chapter in 2024. The rivalry needs that. Alabama has won eight of the last 10 meetings, and Auburn has not won in Tuscaloosa since 2010.
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It is no longer officially called “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” for starters. The Florida-Georgia rivalry ranked No. 5 on our list in 2019. Just look at the Gators’ and Bulldogs’ schedules in 2024. This game still is in its customary Nov. 2, 3:30 p.m. ET appointment viewing spot, but the new-look SEC could develop new rivalries. Remember when Florida-Tennessee was the most-important game in September? That game is on Oct. 12 now. The nature of this rivalry could change – at least a little bit – when the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule if each school is given one protected rival. Keep in mind Georgia has won the last three meetings by 24 points per game. The Gators will need to do their part to keep this thing competitive.
This ranked No. 6 on our list, but Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd opened a debate when he asked whether this game should be played with USC’s move to the Big Ten. It’s something to monitor given the difficulty of the Trojans’ schedule the next three years – and whether USC’s pending rivalries with Ohio State and Michigan in the Midwest decrease the value of the Notre Dame game. Then again, the Irish could join the Big Ten, right? Then again, the Irish have won seven of the last 10 meetings. The Trojans are not going to want to walk away from that.
This rivalry was ranked No. 10 on our list, and it could be argued that it is not a top-10 rivalry in the present tense. The schools did not play in 2020 because each had a conference-only schedule during COVID-19. Clemson has won eight of the last nine meetings heading into the 2024 season. This game’s spot on the calendar likely will not change much because it’s the last week of the season and it remains a ACC-SEC crossover game, but what happens if the Tigers join the SEC in another round of realignment? That would honestly enhance this rivalry.
Bill Bender is a national college football writer for The Sporting News.
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