For some, Saturday’s Army-Navy game marks the end of college football’s 2021 regular season. For others, it’s both the beginning and the end.

Whether you track with the Black Knights and Midshipmen all season, or you confine your football fandom to three-plus hours every December, here’s what you need to know for this year’s rivalry showdown.

The Specs

• Basics: Army (8-3) vs. Navy (3-8), Saturday at 3 p.m. Eastern at MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, N.J.)
• Tune In: TV/Streaming (CBS, Paramount+, American Forces Network); radio (SIRIUSXM Channel 84, Westwood One Radio Network).
• Pregame: CBS Sports Network will air the march-ons (noon Eastern) and pregame programming (1:30 p.m. Eastern) before coverage switches to CBS-TV at 2:30 p.m. Eastern. ESPN College GameDay will broadcast from MetLife Stadium from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern.
• In Person: Heading to the game? Read this first.

How We Got Here

• Navy leads the all-time series 61-53-7 and won the last time the teams played in East Rutherford – a 58-12 rout in 2002.
• Army has won four of the last five rivalry games, including a 15-0 shutout last year at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y. It was the first time either school had hosted an Army-Navy football game since World War II.
• Army is on a four-game win streak dating back to a 21-14 overtime victory over Air Force on Nov. 6. The Black Knights' 8-3 mark means their season won't end Saturday -- they'll face Missouri in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 22. Navy beat Temple 38-14 on Nov. 27 to end a two-game skid.

X’s and O’s

• Army ranks second in the nation in rushing (301.2 yards per game). Navy ranks seventh (228.2). The Midshipmen rank dead last in top-tier college football in passing (130th, 54.4 yards per game) – not much worse than the Black Knights (128th, 93.6 yards per game).
• Navy senior linebacker Diego Fagot leads his team in tackles (85) and tackles for loss (11) and was named a first-team All-American Athletic Conference linebacker in 2021 for the second time.
• Fagot will be charged with stopping an Army running attack led by quarterback Christian Anderson (519 rushing yards, six rushing touchdowns) and three other rushers with more than 400 yards on the season. Junior running back Jakobi Buchanan has 11 touchdowns on the ground, more than double anyone on Navy's roster.

Style Points

• Army’s uniforms will honor members of Army Special Forces Command.
• Navy’s uniforms will spotlight naval aviation, specifically the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
• Who wore it better? Reviews are mixed.

Mascot Mania

• Late last month, West Point cadets sought to add to the storied history of rivalry-based mascot lore by goat-napping the Navy mascot.
• Except they stole the wrong goat, triggering a joint statement from school superintendents reminding students of a 1992 agreement to end such shenanigans.
• Days later, this happened.

Know Your Rivalry Trivia

• Dating back to the first Army-Navy game in 1890, the contest has been played west of the Mississippi exactly one time: A 42-13 Navy win on Nov. 25, 1983, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
• In 1944 and 1945, Army and Navy entered the season-ending rivalry game ranked first and second in the nation, respectively. Army won both games, with the 1944 edition promoted as the “Game of the Century.”
• Navy won 14 straight games over Army from 2002 to 2015, the most consecutive wins put up by either school in the rivalry’s history. Army went unbeaten against Navy from 1922 to 1933, but that streak included two ties (1923 and 1926) plus two seasons where the game wasn’t played (1928-9) thanks to a dispute over player eligibility.
• Need more? Check out this 2019 video of MOAA members getting into the rivalry spirit: