Navy Football

We've got the Bobby Petrino scandal standing as the resident ugly in college football at the moment. Our sport has had some good moments of late as well, though. The story about USC taking their group of players down to Haiti this coming summer was truly heartwarming. Texas Tech sent some players to aid in the clean-up effort of the tornado.

Service like that should be celebrated.

On a lighter note, Adam Kramer, here at Your Best 11, also brought you the video of the Northwestern linemen trying to catch punts. These fun moments should be celebrated as well. It's the fun part of college football, folks. They don't happen often, and they don't exist in the everyday life of your favorite college players, but when they do go on, they are beautiful.

Enter Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo. His team, through spring ball and scrimmages, ran up some 700 live reps. For those of you who don't understand, he clarifies: That's almost what they ran in the entire 2011 season. That's right, in some 15 days of spring ball, the Midshipmen ran almost a season's worth of repetitions. That's a lot of wear and tear on the body.

To reward his guys and say thank you for their efforts, Niumatalolo goes off the script to let the kids have a little fun.

Cupid Shuffle. Swag Surfin'. Electric Slide. The Dougie.

This is just fun stuff. A gang of college football players enjoying themselves. It absolutely is even more entertaining because it's Navy, one of the more buttoned-up programs for a reason. Great to see Niumatalolo let those young men, men tasked with so much responsibility, have a few moments at the start of their session to have a little fun.

They're kids too, and just like the rest of the college football world, every now and then, being a kid is fun—even if it is just for a moment before you get back to the grind. Serious props to Matt Aiken for hitting his Dougie and the two guys who resurrected the old school Kid and Play.

(H/T to @ScottStras for the video)

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto held a press conference at 3 PM Tuesday to introduce officials of the US Naval Academy as football playing members of the conference starting in 2015. 

The agreement to join the Big East was described as maintaining the Commander-In-Chief games with Army and Air Force and the annual game with Notre Dame. 

Further Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk stated that the Army-Navy game would remain as the "Last Navy game of the regular season and played on the second Saturday in December."  The conference affiliation for Navy would be for football only and the Midshipmen would remain in the Patriot League for other sports. 

The discussions leading to today's announcement was described as having been going on since January 2010.

The Big East also announced that the exit fee for any football school leaving the conference would be increased form $5 million to $10 million.

Big East Commissioner John Marinatto welcomed Navy to his football conference describing Navy as having "Over 100 years of football experience, and is one of the most prestigious academic schools in the country."

He mentioned that Navy had "produced both US Presidents and Super Bowl quarterbacks" and pointed out the program had played in eight straight bowl games before 2011.

Marinatto described that the football configuration of the conference would reach 31 million television households. 

 About further expansion referring to both the football and basketball leagues the Commissioner said,

"We are not done yet!"

University of Cincinnati President Gregory H. Williams welcomed the Naval Academy to the Big East, describing their academic prestige and noting their "96 percent graduation rate" in the most recent year.

Navy Superintendent, Vice Admiral Michael Miller USN said,

"We are pleased to accept the invitation for our football team to play in the Big East.  We believe this is in the best interest of the US Naval Academy."

The Superintendent noted the advantages of being in a major conference and mentioned the "Separation growing between the BCS and non-BCS teams widening."

 Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk extended appreciation to Big East Conference Commissioner John Marinatto noting the Commissioner's "Patience and composure " during the discussions which lasted through 12 months.

Gladchuk mentioned several times the challenges of scheduling and noted that in college football today, "opportunities skew towards conference membership."

The Navy AD confirmed that they would honor existing agreements with bowl games and that the the Big East would "accomodate" their annual rivalry games with Army, Air Force, and Notre Dame.  He mentioned that joining schools like San Diego State, located near huge Navy and Marine bases and SMU and Houston, would continue "historic" experiences.

Navy football head coach Ken Niumatalolo described the announcement as, "A great day for the Navy football program...Very excited about the opportunity."

 Although acknowledging the challenge in joining the competitive Big East, he said, "We will not compromise who we are," adding "We feel we can do it."

Niumatalolo went on to note about college football, "The differences between the haves and have nots is widening."  

 When asked if the Big East had demonstrated stability for its future, Admiral Miller said,

"The Stability of the Big East is very important, the Big East has incorporated that."

About maintaining the two annual service academy rivalry games the Admiral said, "We always want to protect our rivalries with Army and Air Force."

Chet Gladchuk went on to say that the move was made based on the "Changing dynamics of college football."  About the risk of being over-matched in the Big East, he said, "Facilities we have put in place over the past 10 years minimize the downside."

Time will tell if Navy can handle the rigors of playing a Big East schedule, then supplementing that with three intense rivalry games against Army, Air Force, and Notre Dame.   Army tried this in Conference USA in the 1990s and the team was worn down badly. The program is only now recovering. 

Navy will benefit from additional television revenue, conference provided visibility, scheduling, and potential invitations to higher level bowls, even the potential to play for the national championship. Traveling to California to play in San Diego every other year will allow the team to be seen by large groups of Navy and Marine Corps members based in the area.  The Mids already play Connecticut, Rutgers, and SMU regularly right now. 

The question that stands out is if height and weight restrictions at Annapolis will limit the size of lineman Navy will need to handle week in and week out the 300-plus-pound linemen routinely found at BCS level schools.  Rutgers for example listed recently on their roster 30 players over 275 pounds and nine over 300 pounds. 

Army, now the only one of the three service academies without conference membership, will again be asked about conference affiliation.  When I spoke to West Point Athletic Director Boo Corrigan during the season on our radio show when the question of Big East expansion came up, he was quite clear that Army was comfortable staying independent.

Time will tell.

Ken Kraetzer cover Army football and Iona basketball for WVOX 1460 in New Rochelle, NY and Sons of the American Legion Radio.  His address on Twitter is SAL50NYRadio.

Back in early December, when the Big East invited five non-BCS schools—Boise State, Central Florida, Houston, San Diego State and SMU—to join the conference, there was also talk that Navy could also be in the mix at some point in the future as well. 

Well according to the Washington Post, the Midshipmen will indeed join the Big East as a football-only member in 2015.

Navy's addition gives the Big East 11 potential members moving forward. The conference is set to lose both Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the ACC and TCU (which was a member in principal, never an actual member), and West Virginia to the Big 12—some time either before this season or after, pending a lawsuit involving the Mountaineers and the conference.  

What is certain is that Syracuse, Pittsburgh, TCU and West Virginia will all be gone. What’s not so certain is if the Big East will be able to survive another round of college football realignment, which could strike at any time.

The massive movements that were talked about at the start of the 2011 season never really came to fruition—the Big 12 managed to survive, only losing Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC—and conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided to stay at 12 teams.

The only big loser of this past year’s wave of realignment turned out to be the Big East, which was put on theoretical life support after losing four key members in the span of just a few months.

In the wake of all of the defections, commissioner John Marinatto and the rest of the conference officials came up with an emergency plan that included inviting some of the top non-BCS schools from around the country to join, regardless if they were a geographical fit or not.

So far, the plan seems to be working, as the addition of the six new members has helped calm the craziness, but who’s to say that if the realignment talk starts back up again, that schools like Boise State, Rutgers and Louisville wouldn’t be potential targets of other BCS conferences?

It will be a little more difficult to leave now that the buyout clause is set to double from $5 million to $10 million, but if the Big East loses one more prominent school to a BCS conference, it could start a dangerous domino effect that could spell doom for the league.

The wise move for the Big East could be to make sure that the conference brings in a 12th team. Bumping up current Big East basketball member Villanova to the FBS level might be the easiest move to solidify a revenue-generating conference championship game, which would give all members more incentive to stay.

Right now, it’s all just speculation, but we have to realize that with the way things are heading with major college athletics these days, and with so much money at stake, nothing is a given anymore.

Would it really be surprising that by the time 2015 rolls around, there isn’t even a Big East? The entire college football landscape could drastically shift over the next few years.

So while it’s nice to see a quality program like Navy getting some love from a BCS conference, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves just yet.

A lot can happen in three years.

The Big East continues to get bigger, assuring that they stay BCS-eligible after a series of programs left the conference. The Navy Midshipmen are reportedly set to join the Big East by 2015. 

USA Today reports Navy and the Big East announced the two would come together for football only starting in 2015—the academy could not join earlier because of scheduling commitments—and a television agreement Navy has with CBS. 

What This Means

The times, they are changing. Navy has played as an Independent since 1879, so you can imagine just how revolutionary this decision has been. 

As the USA Today report assumes, the move to the Big East should not disrupt Navy's relationship and scheduling with other service programs like Army, nor should it affect any future games with Notre Dame. 

This is also goes a long way to ensure that the conference remains stable amidst dramatic turnover. The Big East is set to lose Pittsburgh and Syracuse to the ACC and West Virginia to the Big 12. They will take an addition of talent anywhere they can get it at this point. 

What's Next?

The Big East is finally living up to their namesake as Boise State, Houston, SMU, Central Florida and San Diego State are set to join. 

By 2015, Navy will join, making 11 viable football programs. There is hope that the conference can secure another program by that time. That would allow them to have a conference championship game and really assert themselves as a fully-functioning conference. 

The report's most important piece of information is the exit fee. With Navy joining, the fee to exit the Big East goes from $5 million to $10 million. That makes the conference all the more stable, as it would take a mammoth financial hit to leave. 

With yet another football team coming in, it seems almost ridiculous that we once considered the death of a Big East ship that was quickly taking on water. 

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For the 10th consecutive season, the Navy Midshipmen defeated the Army Black Knights. The final score in this one was 27-21, closer than any game in the past decade.

With 10 straight wins, Navy has now taken a 53-49 lead in the all-time series. A rivalry that used to be very evenly matched has become lopsided in the past decade.

As a game that was first started in the late 1800s, this is one of the oldest rivalries in any sport. But there has never been dominance over a 10-year span like Navy has dominated since 2001. What is it, then, that has been the reason for the demise of Army in recent years? It almost seems like a hex has been placed on the Black Knights.

While a few games over the past 10 years have been close between these two teams, most have been blowouts. This year's six-point defeat was the closest that Army has been since their last win all the way back in 2001.

The hex can be attributed mainly to one thing: talent. Simply put, Army has not had as much talent in recent years like they did in the '90s, where they won seven of the 10 games.

Could it really be possible that Navy has somehow cast some type of spell on Army? While that is obviously not the case, Army certainly finds themselves looking for explanations and will have to wait another season to try and get a win.

Perhaps the change in venue could be the reason for the dominance. The game historically was played at Veterans Field in Philadelphia, but has not been played there since 2001, Army's last victory. The new stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, has since taken its place, and Army is obviously yet to adapt.

So, perhaps its the new field that is causing the hex? Who really knows? Either way, Army needs to figure something out or the dominance of Navy will continue.

After 121 years, we still love the Army-Navy game. The pageantry, pride and patriotic emotion remind us of all that's still good in America.

Starting back in 1890, the nation's oldest service academies began this football rivalry. The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York (Army) pitted their soldiers against the sailors of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

And a national tradition was born.

This isn't just a regional rivalry

Unlike virtually every other rivalry in college football, this game isn't just a regional dual between schools with relatively proximate geographical ties. It isn't just a New York school against a Maryland program.

There are active and former soldiers and sailors all across this great land. From former submariners now living in Colorado to former grunts taking up residence in Virginia, to the men and women actively serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, this game represents all of us.

The Red River Rivalry may be an intense match that every football fan enjoys partaking of, but the bragging rights associated belong mostly to those who are from the region or now live in the region.

Not with this game.

The game may have once meant something awfully big in the national title picture, but the pure hatred can only really be felt between Michigan and Ohio.

Not this rivalry.

This rivalry knows no geographical boundaries. It doesn't wane the farther you get from the East Coast. It doesn't diminish when you leave the comfortable confines of American soil.

Wherever there are those who are serving or have served, this rivalry burns hot in their hearts.

It represents the best of us

Soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines have long given each other their fair share of good natured (and sometimes not so good natured) ribbing. Nicknames like "jarhead," "flyboy," "grunt" or "fish" get jabbed at one another with a mixture of solidarity and branch pride.

Occasionally, there have been some drunken bar fights that quickly followed, but those are mostly relegated to a not-so-distant past in our military history.

Serving in the United State Armed Forces isn't just a job or even a duty. It's a brotherhood unlike any other. There's an unspoken understanding and bond between those who have served this nation. They each know the sacrifices that are made—sacrifices that are borne by entire families and communities of those who serve.

However one decides to go about their service—be it aboard a mighty warship or hunkered down in a foxhole in the sand—those who have "signed the dotted line" and dedicated themselves to the defense of these United States of America have volunteered their lives. They've accepted the debt of death in defense of our country.

When these two teams take the field, the young men wearing those uniforms represent more than the young men and women in dress uniform in the stands. They represent the best in all who have served. They are the future leadership of our Armed Forces.

They are the next General Eisenhower or the next Admiral Nimitz. They'll be the ones that lead future generations of soldiers and sailors into harm's way for the sake of all of us.

When they place boots and rifles on the field in memory of those who have been lost, they're not remembering past players that have gone on to greatness on professional fields or who retired old and tired. They're remembering very real people who faced very real dangers that most of us can't fathom. And they paid the ultimate price.

That's what this game is. It's what it's always been. It's a celebration of our brightest and finest. It's a friendly rivalry between two institutions that build our nation's warriors and defenders. It's a showcase of our future, a reminder of our past and an illumination of our present.

Whether in war or peace, we love this game because it demonstrates the very best of America.

Saturday will bring us a continuation of one of sports' greatest traditions, as the Army Black Knights will take on the Navy Midshipmen in the 112th Army-Navy Game. This one will take place from FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

Navy leads the overall series with a mark of 55-49-7. In addition to the overall series lead, they have won the series' last eight games.

The last three games have been held in Philadelphia. This will be the first time FedEx Field is hosting the Army-Navy Game

Where: FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland

When: Saturday, Dec. 10 at 2:30 p.m. EST

Watch: CBS

Spread 

Navy (-7), according to Bodog.

A Navy win and cover is a pretty solid bet this week. In their current winning streak, the Midshipmen have not won a game by fewer than 12 points.

Over/Under

57, according to Bodog. 

I am going under here. Neither team passes enough for quick scores to take place. I don't see either team getting 30, and it won't be a big enough blowout for the winning team to get such a strong margin.

Key Injuries

Army DB Antuan Aaron, G Joe Bailey, and DE Jarrett Mackey are out.

Army LS Parker Whitten and LB Zach Watts are questionable.

Army RB Terry Baggett and QB Trent Steelman are probable.

Navy WR, Doug Furman and T David Sumrall are out.

Navy CB David Wright and WR Matt Shibata are questionable.

BCS/Top 25 Poll Implications

None in this game. From a National Championship perspective, this game has been irrelevant for quite some time. The relevance of the Army-Navy game goes well beyond rankings.

Keys to Army Win

The legs of quarterback Trent Steelman and RB Raymond Maples. These two teams are eerily similar. They are both in the Top 5 in FBS in rushing yards, and well outside of the Top 100 in passing yards. Navy has a few more weapons.

Steelman and Maples will need to be stellar.

Keys to Navy Win

They need to force Army into third and longs. That would force either Steelman to pass, or for Army to go to less reliable options. If Navy is allowed to key on Steelman and Maples, they will win this one easily.

Prediction: Navy 30, Army 14

Navy just has the better players up and down the rosters. Army will give a spirited effort. Nobody who's ever played in this game has given anything less than their very best.

In the end, the talent will prevail.

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I have watched the Army/Navy game since childhood although I cannot say I'm a true fan of either program. My grandparents are from Philadelphia and for many years I'd find myself in their living room on that final Saturday of the college football season. 

They have long since passed but I can still remember my grandfather (a World War II Veteran) pulling for whichever team seemed to need the win more while my grandmother made no bones about her allegiances to the Naval Academy.

As I got into my high school and collegiate years I must admit my attention seemed to wane as I often found other things to do on that final Saturday of the fall. However, John Feinstein's classic A Civil War reignited my interest in this game for all the right reasons.

What has always attracted me to college football is the lure of college fight songs, storied rivalries and epic contests where student-athletes will their university to triumphs that seemed unreachable. In other words—because college football is everything that the NFL is not.

This has been the worst one-year period in college football history. At the close of last season we dealt with the controversy and realization that a father willingly shopped his own son like a prostitute to the highest bidder. This season we have seen scandal unfold at some of the nation's most storied programs including USC, Ohio State and Miami. 

Then, just when it seemed it couldn't get any worse, the worst horrors in the history of college athletics unfolded with the Penn State sex abuse scandal, where a program founded on "success with honor" at best turned a blind eye to a habitual sex abuser, and at worst, willingly covered up his actions.  When you look at the scope of these problems the annual fight over the BCS seems like the church choir arguing over Christmas Carol selections. 

Enter Army and Navy. Many so-called analysts and cynics alike will argue about the merit of covering a (4-7) Navy club taking on a (3-8) Army team. In a sport that so often assigns the label of hero to a guy who scores a touchdown or makes a block, this game actually provides us with legitimate heroes. Men who play football as an extracurricular activity and for the joy of it rather than as an opportunity to become rich. 

See, these men have chosen a path, be it infantry, armor, Navy flight officer, or artillery. The courage, bravery, intelligence, and sinew that they put on display tomorrow will be the same attributes many of them will utilize the rest of their lives as they protect this great nation. In a terrible year for college football, we could all use a reminder of the principles that this great game was founded on. 

Nothing provides us a better example of this than the Army/Navy game and that is why college football needs this game.