"In fairness to the other schools in the American, we can't ask for them to wait for us to play that game and name a champion because the regular season will have completed. So it just made more sense to completely carve it out. We'll play eight other [conference] teams every year, Navy will play eight other [conference] teams, and we'll just play each other in that war that we have every December and continue to protect it and have all eyes of the country on those young men who are doing their best to represent their country honorably." "