The Army vs Air Force rivalry gets overlooked most years for the Army vs Navy matchup that is a must-watch for all college football purists. But any game between the service academies is always an intriguing matchup, and this year’s matchup between Army and Air Force is the de facto deciding game for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
Every year, Army, Air Force and Navy play for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, which is given to the team that wins the series between the three teams. Army won the trophy in 2020, but Air Force could claim it this weekend as they already beat Navy in September. If Army wins they would either retain the trophy should they lose to Navy and the all three teams earn an identical 1-1 series record or win it outright again by beating Navy.
Army vs Air Force is set to kick off at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 6, serving as the first game in a busy college football week 10, which is highlighted by the likes of AP-ranked No. 12 Auburn vs No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 10 Wake Forest vs North Carolina and fellow service academy Navy taking on No. 8 Notre Dame.
Read on below for a quick game preview and how you can watch Army vs Air Force this weekend.
Army vs Air Force matchup preview
In addition to the tradition of the rivalry between the service academies, what makes watching their games so fun in today’s college football landscape is the fact that they play old-school football, focused heavily on running and good defense. And fittingly enough, Air Force and Army are ranked No. 1 and No. 2, in rushing offense this season in the entire country.
Army’s running game has amassed 2,186 yards in seven games, led primarily by five players who have all rushed for more than 200 yards: quarterback Christian Anderson (427 yards), running back Tyrell Robinson (380), quarterback Tyhier Tyler (303), running back Anthony Adkins (284) and running back Jakobi Buchanan (213). It’s rare that Army even attempts to pass, having just 52 attempts on the entire season, though seven of those have gone for touchdowns.
Army is so good with the run game they’ve been able to score even when teams know that they need to stop it. In Army’s first four games (all wins), they scored 156 points. They were hemmed in for two of their three losses, scoring just 30 combined points, but in their third loss they got in a shootout (or track meet, if you prefer) with Wake Forest, losing 70-56.
Despite that 70 that Wake Forest hung up on the Black Knights, Army’s defense has been playing well for most of the year, ranking 30th in the country overall and featuring an excellent pass rusher in linebacker Andre Carter II, who has 8.5 sacks on the season.
Statistically, however, Air Force has been better in just about every regard this season. Featuring the top ranked rushing attack in the country, Air Force has 2,547 total rushing yards, though they have also played one more game than Army. They also have a strong group of rushers (four with more than 200 yards), but they feature a true lead running back in Brad Roberts, who has 845 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.
The Air Force passing game is also more prolific, at least compared to Army. Rather than a committee approach like Army, Air Force has an entrenched starter in Haaziq Daniels, whose 56 passing attempts are more than the entire Army team (his yardage almost eclipses Army as well), plus he has added 575 yards on the ground.
Then there’s the Air Force defense, which currently ranks third overall in the country in terms of yards allowed per game (281.4), only behind Wisconsin and Georgia. They’ve only allowed 20 points or more to their opponents in their two losses. Air Force has a stud linebacker of their own as well, Vince Sanford, who leads his team in both tackles (36) and sacks (6.5), while also forcing three fumbles on the year.
Army vs Air Force is taking place at a neutral site — Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas — and right now Air Force is considered a 2.5 point favorite for the game.
How to watch Army vs Air Force in the U.S.
Army vs Air Force will play at 11:30 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 6, with the game airing live on CBS. With the game being broadcast on one of the four major networks, anyone with a traditional cable/satellite pay-TV subscription will be able to watch the game via their local CBS station. The broadcast will also be available to those who use a TV antenna to receive their local station signals or are signed up for any of the live streaming services that include CBS, like FuboTV, Hulu with Live TV or YouTube TV.
The Army vs Air Force game will also be available to stream, as the ViacomCBS-owned streaming service Paramount Plus will carry the game live. Subscribers to either Paramount Plus’ $4.99 per month ad-supported option or $9.99 per month ad-free option will be able to stream the game.
Not in front of your TV? If you are a subscriber to either a pay-TV service or a live TV streaming service with access to CBS, you can use your login information to watch the game through either the CBS Sports app or CBSSports.com.
How to watch Army vs Air Force from anywhere in the world
Many of our armed services deployed across the world are alumni of these two academies, so how can they watch — or anyone else throughout the world, for that matter — watch if they don’t have access to the game broadcast? That is where a virtual private network, or VPN, can come into play.
A VPN is a service that routes network traffic through a specific set of servers in a country to create an encrypted feed to watch over a computer. In simpler terms, a VPN hooks a viewer up with a safe feed from another country so they can watch a specific broadcast.
