Question 1: Multiple people, Jerry in New Lenox, Illinois asked it best, though.
Is there any point in still playing Navy today? How long does it take for a debt to be repaid, because you can sight tradition all you want but this game is always a pain even if we win and it can’t even sell out the stadium anymore.
I was surprised this week to see how many people get sick of the annual Navy game. To me it’s one of the truly unique rivalry games in any sport. How often do you have an opponent you play annually that you actually root for every other week of the season? Unless your family has Army ties I think that’s the case for most Notre Dame fans.
Was anyone complaining about this when Navy had an awful football team? Sure it’d be an easy win with nothing to gain but remember Notre Dame is a team that hosted games against New Mexico and Bowling Green this year.
Navy has turned into a pretty good football team the last decade-plus and now it’s a tougher contest but that doesn’t mean you just run from it.
I know some want to say that Notre Dame was far from the only school to get assisted by the Navy back during WWII to keep enrollment up. But how many of those schools were hit with the threat of actually closing their doors? Guessing not many of the massive state-schools had the same issues.
It’s a unique matchup that I’d rather see than it be replaced by something like an alternating list of AAC schools or something of the like. They going to line up to see Notre Dame take on Cincinnati more than once? Didn’t think so.
I get the game is incredibly frustrating, make one mistake, one turnover and because of their ability to grind drives and remain disciplined you can be in a world of hurt and fast.
I wouldn’t change them being on the schedule annually though. In fact, the only thing I’d change about it was to have one game of the series actually be played at their campus in Annapolis instead of always in an NFL venue.
Question 2: Who is this years Rudy?