Navy

Let's count the ways this doesn't make sense.

1. 9am EST kickoff. By the time the West Coast rolls out of bed, the game will be over.
2. No five star tailbacks in Ireland.
3. Jetlag and other distraction slows preparation for Week 2.
4. Seriously Navy, you're an American service academy playing a game in Ireland?
5. The jerseys.

Edit: The jerseys are not being worn today, but they still suck.

Navy, after 130 years of football independence, will be joining the Big East as a football only school starting in 2015.

Some of you might not think much of this news; it's the Big East and Navy, not exactly known for being football powerhouses. But I find this quote telling, 

 

Navy has been playing football since 1879 without conference affiliation, but academy officials said they believe independence will be too difficult to maintain as other powerful leagues grow. Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk said scheduling games late in the season, landing desirable television deals and securing bowl bids will become a problem for Navy.

“Opportunities to exist as independents into the future are clearly in jeopardy,” he said.

Link: http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-bigeast-navy

 

(Note: if you don't want to read anything about ND then don't read anymore. The rest of this thread is me talking about the effect of this and other events on ND's slow roll towards a conference)

 

Can you think of another notable independent school? Perhaps one about 3 hours away from Ann Arbor? One that has been stuck in a state of perpetual ineptitude for about the past 20 years? If you thought of Notre Dame, well, you were correct.

I think the push for ND to joing a conference is getting louder and louder by the proverbial hour. ND's schedule breaks down like this: They play 3 Big Ten teams (Michigan, MSU, Purdue), 2 Pac-12 teams (Stanford and USC), Navy, and Pitt every year. Looking at their 2012 schedule, they fill the rest of their schedule with 3 more teams from the ACC (Miami, Wake Forest, and Boston College), Oklahoma, which is just a home-and-away, and then some middling team from a terrible conference, next year it's BYU.  

With the B1G and Pac-12 entering into their agreement, the Pac-12 will play 9 conference games, on top of the B1G games, and while the B1G will only play 8 conference games, Delany wanted to go to 9 conference games before this agreement went into place and presumably he still wants to go to 9 conference games eventually. With Pitt going to the ACC, and the ACC going to a 9 game schedule, 4 of the teams on ND's schedule will soon be crunched for the space to schedule ND. With the Big East intent on becoming a super conference of incompetence, they'll likely be going to a 9 game schedule as well. It wouldn't be a stretch for the B1G, the ACC, and Stanford to drop ND from the schedule. I figure USC and Navy are two pretty "important" rivalries that will get preserved.

You think NBC will continue to shell out money for ND to play Idaho St. and Alabama Tech? NBC's already moved some of their games to Versus. With the money the BTN is making the B1G schools, I think the Big Ten is going to start to look pretty appealing to ND sooner, rather than later.  

Last FBS game of the regular season, two good/decent offenses, Obama, Biden and some Army/Navy big shots part of a sellout crowd at FedEx Field. Good way to end the regular season.

Navy tries for ten in a row today.

The wife works at Quicken Loans which enabled a free trip to San Diego to theCarrier Classic. Went to the official pre-party tonight. Pretty impressive event. Several Navy guys gave impressive speeches on all the operations going on. Really made me feel guilty about all they do without much gratitude. Also, while I almost hate to admit it, Izzo really seems like a class guy. Roy Williams as well. It would really be awesome if Michigan could get into this event in the future. Anyways, every should be thankful for our military tomorrow (and every day).

According to ESPN, Ed DeChellis is leaving Penn State for the head coaching job at Navy. A little strange, considering DeChellis is a PSU alum, just got a contract exension in 2009 and got them back to the tourney. Does this mean even he believes you can't win at Penn State?

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6580565

On tap for later tonight is the big one, Boise State vs. Virginia Tech.  Right now Maryland is leading Navy 14-0.

I've liked Navy but have not been as big a believer in them as many others.  Most of their wins come against the bottom third of 1-A competition.  However, most people thought Maryland would be in or close to the bottom third of 1-A teams.  The only reason they weren't firing Friedgen is for money reasons.

I know it's early in the game and the season, but is Maryland not going to be terrible this year?

My ESPN Streak for the Cash pick said that Navy would win by more points than Maryland scores TDs + FGs.  We'll see how that works out.