Service academies in general

[Garrett]

I don't know how many of you know this, but service academies have special NCAA rules in place that benefit them greatly. Academies get to have something like 120 scholarship athletes on the football team and 3-4 extra coaches to work with these players. Sure I realize that most of these players get few FBS level offers, but consider how much the talent gap has closed in recent years between the FCS level and the FBS level. If FCS teams had an equal amount of scholarships to work with, there would be a whole lot more FBS upsets. Also let's consider that academies have a large pool of fit, bright young men to pull from as walk-ons.

My point: I think it's time for an NCAA revision to the academy rules. Thoughts?

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

Today? Really?

 

[psilotic]

This isn't a BYU thing. 95 percent of these guys are going on to serve our country. If it was such an advantage why isn't Army or Air Force better? Ken Nimo and Johnson before him are good coaches, that's why they win.

 

[SubbaBub]

They also have rules on how tall and heavy their students can be. They are routinely outweighed at every position by at least 30 pounds. There is really no reason for a competent D-1 program to lose to a service acadamy under most circumstances. A bowl game and beating the other two acadamies is the usually about as good as it gets.

 

[Garrett]

Those height-weight requirements don't apply to football players, otherwise they would have 220 pound guys on the O-line. I think they can still accomplish their mission with a more level playing field in respect to their competition. I could understand the rules if Navy had to compete in the Big Ten East division, but it's certainly an advantage over their peers in the AAC.

 

[Palatine]

The idea that the service academies have too many advantages over regular FCS schools doesn't pass the eye test. They are at a great disadvantage because they require years of service after graduation.

The inability of UConn to defeat Navy is a reflection on UConn not the service academies.

 

[amory]

I'm actually amazed that Navy is as good as they are even with the special rules.

When you're trying to convince a kid out of HS to go to Navy, you're not just trying to beat out any other scholarship offers, you're trying to recruit them to join the military.

 

[nUConn Fan]

@Garrett - having experienced the service academy process in recent years, I can assure you that you are wrong with your observations.

 

[06029]

Technically, every student at the academies are on scholarship. None are there solely on an athletic scholarship so they could be considered to have 120 walk ons. These kids are at the servic academies to be the future military leaders not to play as pro's when they graduate. They have no dreams of being drafted. They have not devoted their life to excelling at 1 sport. Their summers are spent training in the military. Their course load during the season would make any good student think twice.

Make every team in the AAC have the academic and military summer requirements of Navy and then see how level the playing field really is.

 

[huskymedic]

They also have rules on how tall and heavy their students can be. They are routinely outweighed at every position by at least 30 pounds.

Those height-weight requirements don't apply to football players, otherwise they would have 220 pound guys on the O-line..

SubbaBub is correct: College football's 3 toughest jobs

>>Height and weight requirements. They differ slightly by academy, but at Air Force, a 6'4 applicant cannot weigh more than 221 pounds for admission -- and must also not weigh more than that upon graduation. In some cases at the academies, athletes can be over the height or weight limits but must still adhere to stringent body fat restrictions. This makes recruiting offensive linemen very difficult. "I'd love to have a bunch of 320-pound guys with good feet," Calhoun said. "We've never had a 285-pound kid, which is very small for a Division I offensive lineman. We usually average 255 pounds with our offensive line."<<

>>Even though the linemen are small, they aren't nearly small enough to graduate within the requirements. That means they have to lose enormous amounts of weight between the ends of their senior seasons in December or January and graduation ceremonies in May. Niumatalolo said Navy routinely has players drop from 280 pounds to 220 or 230 in order to complete the fitness test of running a mile-and-a-half in 10 minutes and 30 seconds.<<

 

[Garrett]

I'll concede to my wrongness.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Dumb thread is dumb.

 

[freescooter]

They also have rules on how tall and heavy their students can be. They are routinely outweighed at every position by at least 30 pounds. There is really no reason for a competent D-1 program to lose to a service acadamy under most circumstances. A bowl game and beating the other two acadamies is the usually about as good as it gets.

Yeah. Not true any more. Plus they can get exempt from the military service requirement if they get drafted. Of course they have gotten special treatment forever because they are the academies. In the 50s college grads could go to Army or Navy for commisioning and play for them even if they already played their college careers. I get that the academies aren't Loisville but seems to me they really should play by the same rules as everyone else. If the NCAA wasn't afraid of being accused of being unpatriotic they would.

 

[FartMan69]

Yeah. Not true any more. Plus they can get exempt from the military service requirement if they get drafted. Of course they have gotten special treatment forever because they are the academies. In the 50s college grads could go to Army or Navy for commisioning and play for them even if they already played their college careers. I get that the academies aren't Loisville but seems to me they really should play by the same rules as everyone else. If the NCAA wasn't afraid of being accused of being unpatriotic they would.

Did you go to Louisville?