Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo grabbed the attention of some service academy football fans with his comments this week to ESPN about the possibility of ending the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy rivalry.
“If it gets to the point because of scheduling conflicts that we can’t play everybody and the schedule is going to become an issue, the Army game will never go anyplace,” Niumatalolo told the website, in discussing Navy’s move to the Big East in 2015. “I’d rather keep Army and Notre Dame and not worry about the Commander-In-Chief’s trophy. We’re in a conference now. So we need to try to win a conference championship.”
Niumatalolo, who didn’t respond to a text message, said he was speaking on his behalf and he had not discussed the matter with Navy’s athletic director or superintendent. That, along with a rational look at the issue, will lead one to believe that Niumatalolo’s comments probably won’t amount to anything.
An important factor to keep in mind is that it won’t be Niumatalolo’s call, even if it comes to choosing between Air Force and other nonconference games. And it might not be an issue anyway – the Star-Ledger was one of the outlets that reported when Navy joined the Big East, concessions were made to allow the Midshipmen to continue to play Army and Air Force. Air Force asked for similar concessions from the Mountain West when the possibility of a nine-game league schedule was brought up last year.
Ending any service academy rivalry and the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, which dates back to 1972, won’t be a decision unilaterally made by a coach.
One of the main benefits of service academy football is exposure. The Army-Navy game is basically a three-and-a-half hour advertisement on CBS every year for service academies. This year, CBS also broadcast Air Force-Navy and Air Force-Army to a national audience. Given that expanded exposure – and the possibility that happens again in the near future – military leaders in Washington, D.C. will likely scoff at the notion of dumping a 40-year-old service academy rivalry, no matter what Niumatalolo prefers (assuming he’s Navy’s head coach in 2015, when Navy is slated to enter the Big East and when any of this would begin to matter anyway).
Air Force coach Troy Calhoun was skeptical that Air Force’s service academy games would go away anytime soon.
“I don’t think so,” Calhoun said.
Calhoun then seemed to challenge Navy and Niumatalolo in a subtle way, pointing out what Air Force has done through the years playing in a conference (and note in the quote that he points out the “six best leagues” while referring to Air Force’s affiliation with the Mountain West, which would apparently put the Big East in seventh place).
“To be in one of the six best leagues in all of college football, and to still play Tennessee, Michigan, Notre Dame and still play your service academy games, and to be able to go through an academy, it’s the greatest test in college sports period,” Calhoun said, rattling off some of Air Force’s most recent non-conference opponents. “It’s the ultimate rigor and the ultimate mettle building process. But it can be done.”
Never gonna happen. If it hasn’t started already, I’m sure Coach N is already getting an earful from the Navy graduate community as well as the Navy brass for making such a ridiculous statement.
Agreed, I do think he either heard from someone over his head or maybe just regrets saying it by now. It was just an odd thing to say overall (also possible he planned it as a recruiting thing … did say it the day before Signing Day, after all).
Not goin to happen and will not happen in our lifetimes!
Wel, if you can’t win, I guess quitting is an option…
Just another blowhard coach “thinking out loud”. Why would you rather play Notre Dame than AF as a fellow service academy unless all you cared about was the $$ payout?
Seeya in October Coach Ken!
Navy coach sending signals to other programs — “I’ll leave Navy for the right price just as my predecessor at Georgia Tech” while he still has credibility as a coach.” Last loss to AF must have scared him. In other words “I’m gittin while the gittin’s good.”
Unfortunately, I think Coach N(?????)’s comment reflects his true beliefs, just as it does those of the vast majority in the Navy football program…that Air Force is beneath them, and they can call their own shots, because, after all, they’re Navy. They ignore the reality that AF has won the majority of the CIC trophies. Once, when discussing service academy football with a West Point grad, he told me pointedly that “Army only plays one game a year, and that’s Navy.” My gut feel is that regardless of the outcome of the games themselves, Army and Navy grads/players/staff don’t see games vs. AF as anything important. That’s the price you pay for being the younger brother of the three academies.
mlb stuff…
[...]Would Navy dump Air Force off the schedule? Seems very unlikely – Air Force : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
The Navy coach, quite often, talks before he thinks. He has a past history of doing this. I think deep down he would love not to play AF.
Deep downs he knows that he is going to lose more than he wins, againist Air Force.
Deep down he knows that he is going to beat Army the majority of the time.
Deep down, I dont thnk the Navy administration will ever let this happen and have probably already corrected his poor choice of words.
Deep down, the CIC is a really big thing!
GO AF!
Navy hates playing the Falcons. A loss to the AFA kills their season in October. Navy has been in another world lately due to careful scheduling.
A return to form, the 80s, 90s and 2001-2003 and 2010 and 2011 is coming on. They will be killed in the Big East. The Hawaian Grad has been winning with Johnson players. Now he is playing with his own. He makes $1.5M per season. He wants out of Navy now while he can connect elsewhere with a good record. He will NEVER beat AFA in Colorado this October. USNA will lose to ND in Ireland, lose to a Big Ten Penn State at PSU and then have San Jose at Navy-SJU won last year-and play pasty VMI. Thus Navy will likely have three or four losses in its first five games in 2012. It gets Indiana at Navy and then a run of nobodies. Six wins against tier one schools will be hard.
Odds are Army may finally bite. Bleak fall for the Middies!
AFA will be in a position to go 11-1(@ Michigan) in 2012. Tough games @ SDSU and @ Wyoming, both 2011 AFA losses. All the rest quite winnable with Navy at AFA, @ Army, and the usual MWC bottom tier , now @Fresno State-new coach-, Hawaii, and @UNLV . The sole national recognition game is @nd game @ Michigan-last visit 1964 when The Big Blue was Rose Bowl bound. Go AFA.
If Air Force wins all its games including the likes of Notre Dame and Michigan, except for losing to either Army or Navy, it is a losing season. Yet, despite the import placed on the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy, we always respect our brothers-in-arms.
The disrespect shown by Coach N’s comments seemingly indicates he may not understand the mission of the service academies and what we are about, which begs the question, “What is he teaching the Squids?”
Thank you Coach Calhoun for developing leaders of the free world… and beating Army and Navy. Go Air Force, Beat the point spread!
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[...] they chose to twist Niumat’s words and imply that OMG he’s scared of Air Force. Even Troy Calhoun decided to get in on the action: Air Force coach Troy Calhoun was skeptical that Air Force’s service academy games would go away [...]