A five-win Army team may never miss a bowl game again after a recent NCAA ruling. The NCAA ruled that conferences can now fill bowl vacancies with academically-eligible 5-7 schools after bowls have selected all available 6-6 teams. This replaces the over-decade-old procedure of filling bowl shortages with 5-7 teams based on Academic Progress Rating (APR).
The rigors of the West Point experience have actually hurt Army’s Academic Progress Rating performance. The metric awards a maximum of two points per athlete: one for staying academically eligible and another for staying enrolled. Between athletes struggling to adjust academically and others deciding Academy life is not for them, one can see why Army tied for 35th in APR in 2024 and tied for 36th in 2022.
The new contingency process removes academics from the equation, for better or worse, and gives conferences responsibility for placing 5-7 teams into bowls. This is where Army benefits.
The American Conference has few concrete bowl tie-ins, since most of its schools play in ESPN-owned bowl games. ESPN typically eschews conference tie-ins within the Group of Five to create the best matchups based on geography and resumes. Hypothetically, the NCAA can tell ESPN to pick any 5-7 team it wants to fill a vacant bowl slot.
Last year, three 5-7 schools played in bowl games: Rice in the Armed Forces Bowl, Mississippi State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, and Appalachian State in the Birmingham Bowl. Rice and Appalachian State’s situations are particularly relevant to future Army teams. ESPN owns both the Armed Forces and Birmingham Bowls. While Rice made the Armed Forces Bowl due to a high APR and a couple of 5-7 opt-outs ahead of them, Appalachian State’s inclusion may be the impetus for this change.
The Birmingham Bowl could not find an opponent for 6-6 Georgia Southern for hours, with multiple 5-7 teams declining. The game ultimately invited 5-7 fellow Sun Belt member Appalachian State, who already lost to the Eagles earlier in the year. Folks, a bowl featuring two teams from the same conference is a nightmare scenario. With the exception of the BCS and College Football Playoff, it has only happened twice since 1979. Even adding in instances where it happened in the BCS and the Playoff brings the total to eight games in the same span.
The results were disastrous. The Birmingham Bowl drew 12,092 fans, its worst attendance ever by nearly 4,000 fans. Fans who did attend saw Appalachian State lose 29-10 despite the valiant efforts of their fourth-string quarterback Matthew Wilson, who spent most of the year playing cornerback on the scout team.
No bowl committee wants this scenario. ESPN, who treats most bowl games as TV programming especially does not want this scenario. This is where both committees and Army benefit from the new 5-7 team selection process. Army brings a national following and storylines to any bowl. Just ask the Independence Bowl, which saw its largest crowd since 2014 when Army came to Shreveport in 2024 to play a 5-7 replacement team. One could argue that a bowl would rather have a 5-7 Army team over many 6-6 Group of Six teams (sorry, PAC-12).
More importantly, this removes the travesty of bowl games not waiting for the result of Army-Navy before selecting teams. If Army or Navy enter the Army-Navy Game with a 5-6 record, they will likely already be in a bowl as a replacement team. In 2023, Navy entered America’s Game 5-6, but bowl committees passed on the Midshipmen. In the future, such an occurrence is unlikely given how frequent shortages occur.
Coach Jeff Monken has transformed expectations at West Point from scrounging for a bowl appearance to expecting one yearly. No Army fan would view a 5-7 season with delight. Nevertheless, bowl games are an exciting experience for a program far removed from the aspects of college football that make bowls a waste of time for many other programs. Not to mention, Army has only been to 12 bowls in over 130 seasons of play. Ultimately, the NCAA’s new selection process for 5-7 teams is a win for both bowl committees and Black Knight fans across the country.
Go Army! Beat Bryant!!!
