Since news is a little slow this time of the year, we’ll start branching out to cover some topics that impact other service academies and our future conference when they pop up.
Junior defensive end Will Anthony was named the independent defensive player of the week. Against South Alabama he recorded 12 tackles and 2.5 tackles for a loss. His third quarter sack was the first solo sack of his career and ended a South Alabama drive.
There have been some peeks at what the theme for the Army Navy uniforms will be. It appears that the First Navy Jack – perhaps better known as the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag to civilians – will heavily influence the design. I’m just going to leave this here…be sure to wipe up your drool.
Boise State was, once upon a time, going to be a conference mate of Navy’s in the Big East. But they headed back to the MWC for a sweetheart TV deal. Two years in, some MWC athletic departments are realizing just how bad the deal to get them back was. UNLV, for example, has gotten zero “bonus” money, while Boise has pulled down $3.7 million. That gulf will only widen if Boise gets the access bowl this year, since the deal allows them to keep half the $6 million payout. Air Force has fared only slightly better than UNLV. Despite going 9-3 and beating both Boise and CSU, the Falcons got zero “bonus” this year, leaving their 2 year total at a paltry $300k. That’s a hard pill to swallow for an athletic department that is reported to have an annual budget deficit of $26 million.
Quick Hits:
- If you haven’t been watching the videos coming out of the football office, start with the week 10 motivational video.
- You can also catch Noah Copeland giving ESPNU’s all access crew a tour of Ricketts Hall.
- Towson comes to Alumni Hall tonight to seek a measure of revenge for a 1 point loss last season to the women’s basketball team.
- If you have Showtime, tonight’s episode of “60 Minutes Sports” will have a segment on Army football, the hiring of Jeff Monken, and his attempt at rebuilding the program.
- In non-sports Navy news, just 9 plebes dropped out during Plebe Summer, an all-time low. The 4-year attrition rate is around 14%, which comes as a shock to this 90’s grad whose class slipped below 900 by the time we graduated.
The Birddog 
wouldn’t AF get a bonus for the game against us (CBS on a Sat)? of do they only get bonus money for conference games?
the “bonus” is only from the ESPN contract. so “bonus” channels are ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2. The CBS contract has a flat payout equal for every school.
remember, the “bonus” is really just a portion of what would normally be the full contract. there is no actual “bonus.” it’s just a redistribution.
The bonus is for any Major network, not just the ESPN/ABC properties.
oh well my bad then. I misremembered :)
i shall let me original reply stand, unedited, so more may call me out on my failure
Remember, it wasn’t until after the MWC gave into Boise’s demands that they even had a property to shop to ESPN to begin with. The distribution agreement was tied into the conditions for Boise’s return, and not part of the ESPN TV deal. ESPN just pays the conference. It’s up to the conference to divvy up the money.
The rest of the MWC gets what they asked for. They were so desperate for Boise State (and SDSU a little bit) that they skewed the TV contract in BSU’s favor. SDSU got nothing. And the rest of the conference got the leftovers, which are unevenly distributed.
This whole thing is going to fall apart if it doesn’t get fixed.
i thought that game was on CBS, but it was on CBSSN, which doesn’t qualify. my mistake.
1999 had the last real plebe summer. I am sure it has gotten exponentially easier per year that I have been gone so 9 is about right since we lost 200ish…
So, instead of Tango Company, it was Tango Reinforced Fire Team? Or maybe Tango Squad (Light)?