Navy-Memphis
Thursday, Nov. 27
7:30 p.m. Eastern, 4:30 p.m. Pacific
ESPN
Navy-Memphis takes the place of Ole Miss-Mississippi State (the Egg Bowl) as the Thursday night Thanksgiving college football television attraction of the year. The American Conference replaces the SEC on Turkey Day, and this should certainly be an entertaining contest. Blake Horvath of Navy and Brendon Lewis of Memphis are savvy veteran quarterbacks who know how to run an offense. As Americans settle down to watch football on Thursday night, they should get a fun game and won’t be bored to tears when the Midshipmen and Tigers go at it in Memphis.
The American Conference has been interesting and exciting all season long. Navy and Memphis begin the final push to the finish line, and as you’ll see below, this game is the prelude to the rest of Week 14:
Navy-Memphis is the table-setter for the American Conference
Navy-Memphis outcome will tell us how the rest of Week 14 unfolds
Navy does not control its fate in the race for the American Conference Championship Game, the big chance for two teams to play their way into the College Football Playoff. The Midshipmen are not completely out of it, but they need help. They need one of Tulane or North Texas, the two leaders, to lose in Week 14. North Texas plays on Friday against Temple, Tulane on Saturday versus Charlotte. Tulane and UNT are both massive favorites to win those games, so it’s unlikely Navy will get help. Nevertheless, Navy must at least force its competitors to win. The Midshipmen want to prevail on Thursday, catch a happy plane flight home to Annapolis, enjoy the holiday weekend, and sit on the couch Friday and Saturday hoping for a minor miracle. We have seen very improbable occurrences in college football over the years. What’s one more? Navy has to win to put itself in position to benefit from a remarkable turn of events.
Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield will not be part of conference championship weekend. This raises the possibility that the coach might be coaching his final game for Memphis. The college football coaching carousel is about to spin at maximum speed once teams’ regular seasons end. Coaching candidates can interview for jobs once the regular season is over (and there is no conference championship game for said coaches in early December). Is Silverfield in play for an SEC job? We don’t know, but this possibility looms over this Memphis season finale.
Navy Midshipmen-Memphis Tigers Odds
Hear T.J. Rives and Jason Powers preview this game on the “3 Dog Thursday” podcast by clicking play below:
Spread: Navy +3.5 (-105), Memphis -3.5 (-115)
Total: 57.5 (Over -115, Under -105)
Underdog moneyline: Navy +145
The American has been a wide-open conference this season, maybe not as potent as in past years, but still with plenty of offense and entertainment value. The spread has moved at least one point if not 1.5 points toward Navy during the week. Navy was a 4.5-point underdog in some sportsbooks earlier in the week. Now the Midshipmen are +3.5. The spread seems like the much harder part of this bet to calibrate. The obvious play is to take the over at 57.5. This seems like a game in which 28-24 or 27-24 is the absolute floor, and anything more will push the total over.