CBS Sports will continue to televise the majority of Navy football home gamesGETTY IMAGES
CBS, the AAC and Navy have "settled on an agreement that will allow CBS Sports to remain the home of Navy football" through the '27 season, according to Bill Wagner of the Annapolis CAPITAL. CBS Sports "will continue to televise the majority of Navy football home games, including the showdown" with Air Force. CBS in May of last year also "agreed to a 10-year extension to broadcast the Army-Navy game." It is "extremely rare for a conference to allow one of its member schools to negotiate its own separate television contract." But Navy AD Chet Gladchuk said that "such autonomy was a prerequisite to Navy becoming a member" of the AAC. Prior to Navy coming onboard, the AAC had "agreed to an exclusive broadcast rights contract with ESPN." AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco noted that the ESPN deal expires after the ‘19 season for football and after the '19-20 season for basketball. Gladchuk said that Navy "had concerns about having its home games as part" of an AAC contract with ESPN or "any other carrier because of the possibility of not having Saturday afternoon kickoffs." That concern was "mitigated tremendously by two concessions Navy made to help out the conference." First, Navy’s home game against Notre Dame, which is "held in even years," will become part of the next AAC TV package. Second, the primary rightsholder for AAC football will now get "first choice of broadcasting one Navy home game per year." That means "not all Navy home games will be televised by CBS Sports" (Annapolis CAPITAL, 5/10).
