Some homework for you after yesterday’s post…
Forget joining a BCS conference. Instead, create a service academy all-star team. Cherry-pick the best players from all three. Put THAT team in a BCS conference. How would they do? I mean as a program year after year, and not just in 2011.
Discuss.
The Birddog 
I think that depends on which BCS conference you put them in. I mean, put it in the Big East or the ACC and I think they can compete somewhat.
Put them in the SEC, Big Ten or Pac 10, and you’re looking at Vandy redux.
TIn this day and age of mega-bucks for college sports, the Service Academies (even an all-star team of the best players) could better compete, week after week, in the weak sister BCS conferences such as the ACC and Big Least. Even then, but on rare occasions, the all-star team would be a middle tier team tagainst the cream of those conferences. In short, winning teams but no championship teams. Like USAFA. They compete and do well but never a championship. Good not great.
Now, put the service academies in the MAC . . . ! There they could compete on a week to week basis.
better yet (and more entertaining) – think about the epic meltdowns and regularly asininity that would ensue on the all-academy all-star football team message board. The threads on why a certain player from a particular school lost a game and should be replaced by the back-up from the other school would be legendary.
Back in the ’60 we competed for the Lambert Trophy – best team in the east (as slected by some sort of beauty contest/poll at the end of each season). Other than the Ivy League, I don’t think there was any conference in the east but our schedule had a significant number of eastern schools. It might be interest to research our record (both overall and against the select eastern schools) during that time period and how often we won the trophy.
We still compete for it. It’s awarded by the ECAC. We just never win it anymore. We’ve won 5, but none since 1963.
Forget the players, who’s coaching it?
I wonder how Staubach would look in the TO.
Pills, pick whoever. I’m thinking more long-term though, spanning multiple years and presumably multiple coaches.
Just a quick shot and not a full team. Gotta start with Heisman winners. Since recruiting “Athletes” is the big thing:
“Athletes”: Glen Davis, Doc Blanchard: Far and away the athletes of their day
QB: Roger–Though there are lots of good options, his success at all levels–NFL–makes him “THE” QB.
RBs: Joe Bellino, Napoleum McCallum
WR: Phil McConkey
Stalwarts of the Defense:
Defense: Chad Hennings, Jabari Tuani on the D line
Bob Weissenfels as a Safety
I know this is Navy heavy(if you can’t figure that one out, please remember where you are), but that’s who I’m the most familiar with.
Please skewer me as appropriate, but I certainly couldn’t come up with 24 positions off the top of my head.
To answer the second part of the question: could a team of Service Academy all stars compete in a BCS conference? Probably not, even if you consider their potential next to their contemporaries as opposed to those of today (Mrrs Inside and Outside, Roger the Dodger might do OK today, but they raised the talent level expectaion of their respective generations.)
I do, however, think that they could be a BCS buster if they all played together.
Chet Moeller of course
I’m not talking about an all-time team.
I assume theoretically, right? We are not going to worry about how 3 distinctly geographic teams would field an all-star team. Like maybe its at Navy one year, so all the Air Force and Army boys have an exchange semester at Navy in order to field the team, do practices, and so on. So if you are a believer in the “talent” theory of football; i.e., “we can’t expect Michigan to be super competitive because our talent has fallen behind” – then sorry the best of 3 guys for any one position fielded by an all-academy team is going to be competitive with – at best – the also-rans of the big BCSs confs.
But what makes a team like Navy able to beat Missouri or AF beat GT? INTANGIBLES! Its exactly what all-star teams lack – e.g.: team cohesion, synergy, anticipation of what your team mate intends, fighting for a cause, etc. So I think that an all-star team is not going to be an improvement over a regular academy team – except maybe the Army teams of the 1999-2010.
Oops. I totally missed the point if you are talking about Woody’s interpretation.
An exchange semester of the same talent available means the intangibles are still there–work, live and practice together for 4 years. I think the “academy” team would be competitive, but not championship. Navy, in it’s current state, regularly beats the bottom dwellers of the BCS (Vandy comes to mind) but we would run into the same issues people throw at Utah, BSU, etc: playing one or two a year is different than running the gauntlet.
I’d say Academy All-Star shows up with winning records most years, but never seriously contends.
Ditto, Woody. All star teams perennially have problems with cohesion and synergy. When I played, don’t take this wrong, I DESPISED the Kaydet and Zoomie football program, players, etc. How to overcome that? I don’t think it’s possible. Anyway, my two cents…