Some days are more interesting than others. This was a day in 1996 for me, a day when I was working for a newspaper in Middletown, N.Y., and within the space of an hour I spent 30 minutes apiece talking to a pair of old football players. “No one is going to know who you’re writing about,” Felix “Doc” Blanchard said, laughing.

Tonight's tilt between the No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and No. 18 Army Black Knights at Yankee Stadium in New York City has huge College Football Playoff implications. The experts who pick these games each week are certainly aware of that.

Army football game circled as one that would impact the College Football Playoff race. The nostalgia of these two teams playing at Yankee Stadium 100 years after the fabled “Four Horsemen” of Fighting Irish lore was cool, but it was expected to be an ...