- President Donald Trump has issued an executive order prohibiting other college football games from being broadcast during the annual Army-Navy game.
- Trump hosted the Navy football team Friday to present the Commander-in-Chief Trophy.
- The president has prioritized college sports during his second administration.
The annual Army-Navy football game has been celebrated as “America’s Game.”
Now President Donald Trump says the storied gridiron contest will be the country’s “only” college football game on the air — at least during the teams’ annual matchup on the second Saturday of every December.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Preserving America’s Game.”
The order’s intent is to protect the history-rich rivalry game between the nation’s two oldest service academies — the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) and the U.S. Naval Academy — from sharing its traditional play date and time with other college football games.
Trump, who has regularly attended the annual football game between the Black Knights of Army and the Navy Midshipmen, noted that Army-Navy has been a “symbol of excellence and the American spirit” for over a century.
“Now, the recent and potentially ongoing expansion of the College Football Playoff and other postseason college football games threatens to encroach upon the second Saturday in December — a date traditionally reserved exclusively for ‘America’s Game,’” Trump wrote.
“Such scheduling conflicts weaken the national focus on our military service academies and detract from a morale-building event of vital interest to the Department of War.”
The executive order went on to say that it is “the policy of the United States” that no college football game — specifically the playoffs or other bowl games — be broadcast in ways that conflict with the Army-Navy football game.
Trump’s order makes reference to potential expansion of the CFP, which likely would lead to an earlier start for the playoff. In the first two years of the 12-team format, 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, according to The Associated Press.
Trump welcomes Navy Mids to the White House
Trump hosted the Navy football team at the White House on Friday to present the Midshipmen with the Commander-In-Chief Trophy, awarded each year to the premier service academy gridiron squad.
Navy claimed the trophy by defeating both Army and the U.S. Air Force Academy during its 2025 season.
During the presentation, Trump called the Army-Navy game “one of the most special occasions in all of sports” — but added in recent years that college football’s expansion has encroached “on this sacred four-hour time slot” traditionally reserved for the Army-Navy game.
Now, following Friday’s executive order, “Nobody’s playing football (on that Saturday) — not Ohio State against Notre Dame; not LSU against Alabama,” he said. “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.”
Trump then added his “America’s Game” executive order would likely prompt litigation. “Of course, we’ll probably get sued at some point. We always get sued. But we win those suits, and we’ll win this one.”
Trump’s ongoing involvement in college sports
The president’s Friday directive orders the Secretary of Commerce and the Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission to coordinate with the CFP Committee, the NCAA and “other appropriate government agencies” to establish “an exclusive window” for the Army-Navy game — “during which no other college football game is broadcast.”
It comes two weeks after Trump hosted a White House summit examining historic disruptions that have changed the college sports landscape.
In recent years, financial and procedural changes in the form of NIL payments, school-sponsored revenue sharing and wide-open transfer policies have become the norm in college sports — particularly in football and men’s basketball.
“The whole educational system is going to go out of business because of this,” said Trump at the March 6 gathering.
The president suggested he would write an “all-encompassing” executive order that would prompt Congress to action.
He added that he expects that order — which has not yet been presented — would likely trigger a lawsuit that could put the issue back in front of the court system that approved industry-changing payment to players for their name, image and likeness, The Associated Press reported.
The college sports roundtable at the White House included University of Utah President Taylor Randall and several government leaders, college conference commissioners, the NCAA president and the CEO of the U.S. Olympic team.
“Given the urgency for universities to address this issue, I’m hopeful continued conversations and action at the national level will lead to meaningful progress toward greater financial stability in college athletics,” wrote Randall in a statement released after the gathering
Randall attended the event on behalf of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who was originally invited to join the roundtable
The governor’s office did not provide a reason for him missing the White House event — but, notably, March 6 was the final day of the 2026 Utah legislative session.
Army-Navy: A game steeped in gridiron tradition and lore
First played on Nov. 29, 1890, the Army-Navy game is numbered among college football’s oldest and most storied rivalries. Navy may lead the all-time series with a 64-55-7 record — but those numbers reveal the competitiveness of the rivalry.
The game’s also defined by its unique pageantry and patriotism. Several American presidents besides Trump have attended the game — including Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Today, the annual Army-Navy football game doubles as a college sports throwback.
Players at the service academy are not eligible to receive NIL cash — and the institutions’ restrictive enrollment policies do not allow their football teams to boost their rosters after each season via the transfer portal.
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.