As the BCS Coalition rejects anything approaching a playoff for the BCS Championship, the NCAA certified two more minor bowls because that's what the nation really wanted. Say hello to the Congressional Bowl in Washington D.C. and the St. Petersburg Bowl in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Congressional Bowl will likely feature Navy and the 9th place team from the ACC. Not that the ACC has produced more than 8 bowl eligible teams in a season and Navy no longer has Paul Johnson coaching them. Don't worry, though, the MAC will be the fallback.
Not that the St. Petersburg -- your corporate sponsor name here -- Bowl is a particularly attractive bowl. It features the 7th place (or 6th depending on Notre Dame) Big East team versus the 5th or 6th place Conference USA team.
Stunningly this is better than expected since the NCAA actually rejected a third bowl bid. The Rocky Mountain Bowl in Salt Lake City between the WAC and MWC. Sure they had no date, TV partner or deal with the stadium, but apparently that wasn't necessarily going to stop them.
Such is the peril of independence in conference-driven college football
Navy's football program has a strong bowl resume. They've made five straight postseason appearances. They have a national fan base. Their fans travel well and buy bowl tickets. They get good TV ratings. And they still can't find a bowl home.
Athletic director Chet Gladchuk has been successful in negotiating the Midshipmen into five consecutive bowls, but at this moment there is nothing in place for 2008.
Navy has an ongoing relationship with the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, having appeared in that game in 2005 and 2007. However, the Mids are not scheduled to return to the Poinsettia Bowl until 2010, leaving Gladchuk looking for a landing spot in 2008 and 2009.
"We are going through our annual offseason ritual of jockeying for a postseason opportunity. All we can do is try to cultivate relationships with various bowls and hope something opens up," Gladchuk said last month.
Navy's at the mercy of several big conferences. If someone doesn't fill a contracted bowl slot, that creates an opening for any remaining bowl eligible teams such as Navy.
We'd tease them a little here, but I'm guessing the program sees the big picture and isn't really complaining. They're the Naval Academy after all, and there's no crying in baseball military life. In all seriousness, we hope Navy finds a bowl home this year (assuming they even win six games to become bowl eligible after resurrection artist coach Paul Johnson left town for Georgia Tech this offseason).
According to reports in the Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPaul Johnson has agreed to become the next head football coach at Georgia Tech. The AJC's venerable college football insider Tony Barnhart does hedge in his article that there is always a chance that Johnson could change his mind. (And after a week filled with false alarms on the coaching carousel, can you blame Tony for playing a little CYA?)
When Georgia Tech fired Chan Gailey, they gave lip service to finding a coach to excite their fanbase. Johnson is not Mr. Personality but he is a proven winner and winning games fills seats. Outside of his W-L record the two big pluses for Johnson at Georgia Tech are his familiarity with recruiting in the state of Georgia (he was a head coach at Georgia Southern) and his history of recruiting at a school with challenging admission standards.
The only question mark is what sort of offense will he use. He made his name with Navy's triple option, but has plenty of experience with passing oriented schemes. Jacket fans probably won't care if he throws all day or keeps it on the ground. All he needs to do is beat Georgia.
Oh, and their opponent North Texas dropped in 62 points for good measure. No, it's not WAC football, but it sure is special.
For the math challenged that's 136 regulation points between two college football teams.
Imagine the noise made by those old school adding machines or cash registers. Now pretend they started making noise for every chunk of say, 10 yards. Place them on the sidelines for today's game and imagine how absolutely constant and annoying they would be adding up the 1300 units of combined yardage between these two teams.
Frankly, I'm thrilled. I'm an offensive guy so that stuff just makes me grin from ear to ear. Defense is important (crucial, in fact), but I'm a positive motion kind of guy. Defense is simply the art of getting in the way and tonight neither team made much effort to get in the way.
Navy already leads the nation in rushing, but they've probably iced the rushing title with a few weeks to spare after churning out 572 yards tonight (on 57 carries! 10 yards/attempt!).
These "fans yelling when something good happens" videos are all pretty much the same: something good happens, fans yell really loud, person holding the camera swings it around wildly until you feel like you're going to throw up. This is that, but since it comes from the Navy section at Notre Dame Stadium on the final play of the game, it seems post-worthy anyway:
Congrats to Navy on breaking a 43-year long streak of futility. (HT: Pitch Right.) A tribute to Ram Vela's flying squirrel attack after the jump.
In my lifetime of being a Notre Dame fan, I've had to suffer through my fair share of low points. Most of which have come this season. What happened on Saturday though, losing to Navy in triple overtime, that's the lowest I've ever felt.
I'm not a blind Notre Dame homer, I realize when the team sucks, and this team sucks. Still, I didn't think they could actually lose to Navy. I also didn't think Charlie Weis would be smart enough to go for it on a 4th and 8 on the 25-yard line late in the 4th quarter of a tie game, but I guess I'm just a damn moron. Surely the genius knows more about football than I do.
Anyway, getting past my Irish angst, it must feel really nice to be a member of the Naval Academy right now. They finally got the monkey off their back, and when you do that, there's only one thing you can do: party. They're partying so hard in Annapolis, they even canceled classes on Monday.
The Naval Academy canceled classes Monday, giving the 4,400 midshipmen another day to celebrate the football team's first victory over Notre Dame in 44 tries.
I'd be angry with the Academy for reveling in my shame so much, but really how I can be mad at them in good conscience? When they're done playing football they'll be out their putting their lives on the line to protect us from all those evil terrorists and Canada. We can't thank them enough for that.
I spent most of my Saturday getting irresponsibly rocked, but that was about the only thing that didn't feel strange. In Los Angeles, it rained all day. Buckets. And then Syracuse pulled off what was numerically the biggest upset in college football history. I was ready for just about anything, up to and including the unthinkable: Duke winning two games in consecutive weeks against DI teams without having to sell out and take a date with a Sun Belt team. During a particularly inspired fifteen minutes, I was halfway through preparing the celebratory post for their victory over Navy. And let's face it: you gotta be pretty heartless to root against Navy provided you didn't go to some other service academy.
For however long, order was restored as the Middies mounted a furious comeback to avoid the ignominy of getting bested by the former losers of 22-straight, ending the 46-43 firefight (over 1,000 total yards! For reals!) with a 44-yard field goal. Despite the increasingly impressive play of sophomore gunslinger Thaddeus Lewis (427 passing yards on Saturday), it's unlikely that Duke will get a better chance at victory until at least November, since their conference slate is particularly unforgiving. Then again, they round out against Notre Dame and UNC, so maybe hope of an actual two-game winning streak isn't so far fetched after all.
West Virginia fans take a lot grief for their actions and their t-shirts from the rest of the country. And rightfully so. We have "allegedly" dropped trash cans on opposing coaches, taken a number two in the opposing bands seats, burned couches, and drink too much. And yeah, the t-shirt. You can have one hand delivered to your tailgate if you keep your eyes open.
But word out of Piscataway is that the Rutgers student section was being a little more than rough on the Navy football team and fans last Friday night. Even though all the bad words are dashed out, I'm still don't think it's something I want to reprint. But the general feeling of those present goes something like this.
"This is how you treat people who may die for this country?" said Bill Squires, an Annapolis graduate (Class of'75) who was on the sidelines for the Friday night game in Piscataway and was shocked by the obscene chants directed at the Navy players and fans throughout the game. "It was the most classless thing I've seen."
Navy was booed and peppered with "You suck!" chants when they stepped on the field for both halves. Toward the end of the second half, Rutgers students in the new bleacher section began to serenade the adjacent section of Navy fans and uniformed Midshipmen.
Maybe it's just because today is 9/11 and the emotions are running a little high, but if there was ever a team that you shouldn't be disrespectful to, this is it. Well, all the service academies probably deserve to be treated a little different. There are certain games on everyone's schedule that you know things like this are going to happen. Pitt-West Virginia, Michigan-Ohio St., etc. I'm not saying it's right, but you know from experience that the bad blood will never go away. So you bring your ear muffs, or you stay at home and watch. But what did Navy do to anyone?
Navy still won, 30-19, but it was a lot better game than expected from the Temple Owls. Navy jumped out quickly, but Temple actually responded instead of folding quickly. Navy piled up tons of rushing yards but was forced to settle for field goals.
Temple showed more than a pulse. It actually looked like Head Coach Al Golden might be making progress with the team. At the very least, they have a shot of being considered better than FIU, FAU, Duke, Buffalo and other perennial bottom feeders of 1A football. At the very least, they might actually be relevant in the MAC in their first season as a full member.
The game also marked the return of Navy Fullback Adam Ballard. Ballard broke his leg at the end of last year in the Army-Navy game. In this game Ballard scored two of Navy's three touchdowns. Nice way to start a senior season.
Navy's offense remains as potent, but their defense definitely has some issues. The Midshipmen struggled with screens and short passes.
Although Maryland and Navy are only 30 miles apart, they have only played each other once in the last 42 seasons. Their 2005 game in Baltimore proved to be a major success so you'd think it would be a no brainer to play more often. But that's not happening and both sides are blaming each other. Maryland wants to schedule a game in 2010, but Navy is dragging their feet. It seems the Middies are still a little miffed about Maryland's decision to play in the Champs Bowl last season instead of facing the Naval Academy in the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte. This game makes too much sense not to happen and Navy's status as an independent gives them enough flexibility to fit into the Terps' schedule. Look for them to kiss and makeup if not out of convenience than over the potential dollars this game can generate.
As the BCS Coalition rejects anything approaching a playoff for the BCS Championship, the NCAA certified two more minor bowls because that's what the nation really wanted. Say hello to the Congressional Bowl in Washington D.C. and the St. Petersburg Bowl in St. Petersburg, Florida.
According to 
Oh, and their opponent North Texas dropped in 62 points for good measure. No, it's not WAC football, but it sure is special.
I spent most of my Saturday getting irresponsibly rocked, but that was about the only thing that didn't feel strange. In Los Angeles, it rained all day. Buckets. And then Syracuse pulled off what was 
West Virginia fans take a lot grief for their actions and their t-shirts from the rest of the country. And rightfully so. We have "allegedly" dropped trash cans on opposing coaches, taken a number two in the opposing bands seats, burned couches, and drink too much. And yeah, the t-shirt. You can have one hand delivered to your tailgate if you keep your eyes open. 
Navy still won, 30-19, but it was a lot better game than expected from the Temple Owls. Navy jumped out quickly, but Temple actually responded instead of folding quickly. Navy piled up tons of rushing yards but was forced to settle for field goals.
Although Maryland and Navy are only 30 miles apart, they have only played each other once in the last 42 seasons. Their 2005 game in Baltimore proved to be a major success so you'd think it would be a no brainer to play more often. But that's not happening and 
