WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday barring the College Football Playoff and other postseason games from being televised during the annual Army-Navy football matchup in December.
Trump directed the commerce secretary and the FCC chairman to coordinate with the CFP, the NCAA and media rights partners to ensure an exclusive broadcasting window for a storied college football rivalry game that in recent seasons has been played on the second Saturday of the 12th month of the year.
The president’s order makes reference to potential expansion of the CFP, which likely would lead to an earlier start for the championship chase for the Football Bowl Subdivision, the upper tier of NCAA Division I. In the first two years of the 12-team format the past two seasons, the first-round games were the weekend after Army-Navy, which moved off the first Saturday in December in 2009 because of conference championship games.
This year, Army-Navy is scheduled for Dec. 12 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the home of the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets. The CFP first-round games are set for Dec. 18-19.
If the playoff were to expand to 24 teams, a model that has been discussed, at least one more week of games would be required. Starting the postseason earlier in December would be a consideration. A smaller expansion to 16 teams wouldn’t necessarily change the number of weeks required for the CFP, which was a four-team event from its inaugural edition in the 2014 season through 2023.