President Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Benefitting Army-Navy Football Game
College football is currently in the middle of a massive, money-hungry identity crisis. Rivalries that have lasted over a century are being tossed into the woodchipper for a few extra million in television rights. Conferences stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, making zero geographical sense. And the College Football Playoff is expanding faster than a tailgate tent in a windstorm.
Amid all this chaos, there has always been one sacred, untouched afternoon on the sports calendar. The second Saturday in December. The Army-Navy game.
It is the one day when the entire sport stops to watch the Cadets and the Midshipmen battle it out. But recently, the suits in charge of the College Football Playoff started eyeing that exclusive December television window. They wanted to encroach on it. They wanted to put playoff games on the same day, burying an American institution under the weight of postseason television revenue.
In a move that feels like it was ripped straight out of a sports talk radio fever dream, President Donald Trump has officially stepped in to drop the hammer on college football executives.
The Threat Of College Football Playoff Expansion
To understand how we got here, you have to look at the sheer greed dictating modern sport. The College Football Playoff is ballooning. With more teams and more rounds, the schedule is getting entirely too crowded.
Naturally, network executives started looking at the second Saturday in December. For decades, CBS has broadcast the Army-Navy game as a standalone spectacle. It’s a day when the sport takes a collective breath. But to the folks running the playoff, an empty Saturday is just unmonetized real estate. Rumors began swirling that playoff games would soon directly conflict with the military academies’ annual clash.
Fans were outraged. Veterans were furious. And as it turns out, Trump was watching.
Trump Signs “Preserving America’s Game”
During a White House ceremony celebrating the Navy football team’s capture of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, Trump decided to pull the ultimate audible. He signed an executive order literally titled “Preserving America’s Game.”
The mandate from Trump is incredibly straightforward: no college football game, specifically CFP or other postseason matchups, can be broadcast in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy game. Period.
“Nobody’s playing football,” Trump declared during the signing. “Not Ohio State against Notre Dame, not LSU against Alabama. Nobody’s going to play football for four hours during that very special time of the year in December. It’s preserved forever for the Army-Navy game.”
The order actively directs the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Commerce to coordinate with the NCAA and the playoff committee to ensure this exclusive four-hour broadcast window remains completely untouched.
Will the Executive Order Actually Hold Up?
Now, from a legal perspective, telling television networks and private sports organizations what they can and cannot broadcast is a bold move. It’s the kind of heavy-handed government intervention you usually see reserved for national security, not television sports scheduling.
Even Trump acknowledged the sheer audacity of the play call. With a smirk, he admitted that a legal battle is almost certainly brewing. “Of course, we’ll probably get sued at some point,” he joked to the crowd. “We will get sued, but we win those suits, and we’ll win this one.”
Legal experts are already pulling their hair out, citing the First Amendment and free market broadcasting rights. But let’s step away from the courtroom for a second and look at the court of public opinion. Is there a single college football fan in this country who actually wants the Army-Navy game to be pushed aside?
Why the Army-Navy Game Deserves Its Own Stage
There is a distinct human emotion tied to this specific matchup that you simply cannot replicate anywhere else in sports. When Navy Head Coach Brian Newberry took the podium, he thanked Trump for protecting the “sanctity” of the matchup. “It’s a game with a soul,” Newberry said. “And it deserves to be protected.”
College football has lost a bunch of its soul lately. We’ve traded tradition for television markets. But thanks to a rather unprecedented executive order, the soul of the Army-Navy game is safe. For those four hours in December, the field belongs exclusively to them. And honestly, that is exactly how it should be.
