Game Of The Year

This game won’t decide a national championship and none of the participants is likely to ever play in the NFL.

And yet the annual Army-Navy football game matters.

The NCAA talks a lot about student-athletes, and a high percentage of those student-athletes don’t graduate or major in “undecided.” Army – the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. – and Navy – the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. – turn out military officers who majored in any of several variations of engineering (aerospace, electrical, general, nuclear), information technology, physics, systems management, mathematics. No recreation science or general studies here.

Army’s graduates owe their country, in return for this tuition-free education, five years of active duty and three years in the reserves. Navy’s requirement is similar. These players become commissioned officers in the service of their country. There’s no NFL draft for them.

The teams will play on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. For Army (2-9), this is the end of the season and, for the seniors, the end of football. Navy (9-2) will play in the Military Bowl in its home stadium against Pitt on Dec. 28.

While others may point to their bowl games as the apex of the year, the service academies do not. Army and Navy point to this one.

“It’s obviously the biggest game of the year for us,” says Keenan Reynolds, Navy’s record-smashing quarterback. He can become the first Navy quarterback to go 4-0 as a starter against the Cadets.
Army-Navy. Saturday. Watch it. Watch these players. Because when they’re done playing, their real work begins.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .