The year is 2026 and you’ve just been hired as the director of athletics at the University of Notre Dame after the 18-year reign of Jack Swarbrick came to an end. You’re nervous. The athletics scene on campus is setting a high bar with a National Championship under head coach Tommy Rees and the No. 1 recruiting class coming in to keep the train rolling. Intense pressure out of the gate.
Then, your athletic department staff come to you with a decision they’d like you to make, one that’s been waiting to be made for the new AD: Either drop the annual series with Navy or do the same with Stanford. You have to make a choice.
Trees or Anchors. Silicon Valley bros versus soldiers. The Farm versus NFL Stadiums.
Tough decision.
For sure, this is a tough call. Navy has long been a source of irritation and their place on the Irish schedule every year since 1927 (except last year’s Covid altered schedule) has been a source of contention for decades. Meanwhile, we have Johnny-come-lately Stanford who started a steady rotation against the Irish in the late 1980’s, inflicted some soul-crushing losses on Lou Holtz teams, then the university went all “I like you have a cupcake” and decided to play the Cardinal every year.
Say No to Stanford
Stanford had zero business grabbing an annual game on the Notre Dame schedule. Zero. It was a decision made in the darkest of mid-1990’s times when pleated khaki-laden leaders believed Notre Dame made the coach and non-football considerations would never upset the golden goose.
The familiar term “aspirational peer” is bothersome at minimum and patronizing at worst. We are not and have never been peers on the football field.
Despite the best efforts of David Shaw and his enormous egg head and swarmy half-smile, Stanford has largely sucked over their program’s history. After the 2005 season, they demolished their stadium and rebuilt a new one just so opponent fans can come watch their team play because Lord knows Stanford fans don’t exist for football.
Dumb tree.Â
Their mascot is an abomination, their band even worse. Something people like Mark Zuckerberg think is really super cool and fun. Where is Zuckerberg’s main residence? That’s right, Palo Alto you giant freaking weirdo. Guilty by association.
The stadium turf in Palo Alto is a glorified cow pasture sprayed with WD-40 and your football players are second-class citizens on campus behind many other sports. Embarrassing.
I enjoy watching Stanford lose. This is important.
Say No to Navy
Bloody hell, where do we start?
Notre Dame owes a debt of gratitude (you’re obligated to say this exact phrase when discussing the relationship between the schools) for Navy saving the the school from going under during World War II. Except, Navy did this exact thing with dozens and dozens of other schools too and those football teams didn’t decide to schedule Navy in perpetuity.
Notre Dame, like so many other schools, would’ve been fine after the war anyway. Don’t be so dramatic about things. We don’t like to talk about the schmoozing off field with government contacts and the hundred year wining and dining relationships that has always driven this “rivalry.” Remember, the schools had already played 14 straight times prior to WWII anyway and we might be still in an annual game even without V-7 or V-12 training programs being held on Notre Dame’s campus.
So, take those cut blocks for 3.5 hours every single year aspiring NFL athlete just so Father Jenkins and Admiral Gilday can go out to $14,000 dinners in Dublin while the plebians suffer bloated pricing from Anthony Travel for a game in Ireland. There’s your mutual respect.
On the field, it’s chippy and grudge-filled in a much too weird way. Navy are untalented try-hards playing with a chip on their shoulder because they’re thrown into a rivalry against superior athletes every year.
Their students wake up early with really regimented schedules. No kidding, wow! Why don’t you try using some of that time practicing receiver routes and teaching your quarterback how to throw the ball?
Another story about an academy player’s daily schedule.Â
Coach Ken Niumatalolo is the highest paid person by the Pentagon. Talk about misuse of government funds and taxpayer waste.
What a fun annual game to watch a skinny 162-pound safety taunt Kyren Williams after giving up a 17-yard run. Go back to tucking in your bed sheets in Annapolis, little boy.
The Decision
There are no wrong answers here, only right answers.
The genesis of this article was putting up this poll on Twitter last week and wondering what fans would decide if given the choice. For a really long time it was close to a 50/50 decision.
You have the power to drop the Navy or Stanford series as an annual matchup for Notre Dame. Which do you choose?
— € Murt (@EMMurtaugh) November 4, 2021
This is Notre Dame so I don’t want to be dismissive of tradition. That’s why I’ve always thought it absurd that a long-time Pac-12 bottom-dweller was given an annual spot on the Notre Dame schedule after 100 years of playing football. In a vacuum it makes no sense.
Navy, though. Not a single Notre Dame fan anywhere has ever been excited to play Navy. This should matter. No young kid asked his dad who was up as the next opponent, was told Navy, and got pumped up. A win against Navy has never felt good and to rob fans of that feeling is wrong.
At least Stanford is a Power 5 team and beating them–and watching them lose–feels good. I feel nothing about Navy when they’re playing Tulsa or Memphis.
The Cardinal stay on the schedule.
But Wait!
If I can be serious for a minute, this is what should really be done:
We largely play Navy to give them money as gratitude. Therefore, Navy doesn’t need to come play at Notre Dame Stadium. We play the home game for Navy at neutral stadiums with large capacity so they can rake in more cash while giving the Irish a small cut. Let’s just agree Navy can keep all the money for that neutral site game and in return never play them in South Bend.
Navy every other year, please give us that breather from the insanity.
Also, if Notre Dame is so interested in ending the year in California can we not just rotate Stanford and Cal in with the every other year trip to the L.A. Coliseum? Like this:
2022: USC
2023: UCLA
2024: USC
2025: Stanford
2026: USC
2027: California
Pulling this off and being able to influence and get the Pac-12 to agree with this set up would be so, so much more preferable. Who says no?
don’t let the door hit you on your way out navy
would rather play literally anybody (except wofford) every year than them
although this did make me laugh
I’ll do you one better — drop Navy and replace them with Army.
If we insist on playing a service academy, Army plays a much more significant role in the history of ND football than Navy does.
and is actually good at football now
and has better uniforms
and has a gorgeous stadium they aren’t scared to play teams in
and (and although i’m not really an army fan i watch a fuckton of army foobaw) they seem significantly less psychotic and dirty than navy (which is a low bar but)
The ‘good at football’ part I wouldn’t factor into such a decision. It was pretty darn recently that Navy was a legitimately good team that was giving headaches to the likes of Ohio State and Prime Spurrier-era South Carolina. This stuff is always cyclical.
i was more talking about army
it is a lot easier to sell a series with army now that they are good
Easier to sell to those who are willing to be sold. There’s a huge chunk of the national CFB fan base that considers Army/Navy/Air Force as virtual FCS teams, and those people will never be persuaded otherwise.
This is SO true.
Voted to drop Stanford and would keep it that way. I’m old school enough to put value in that Notre Dame/Navy has happened 94 times in the last 95 years, it’s a tradition. Like other traditions is it kinda foolish and just something you do because it’s always been done? Perhaps, but that’s part of what keeps tradition alive as a link back to the wonderful history of the olden days. The cut blocks are annoying, but perhaps over-stated – who got cut this year any more than normal? (Also, Notre Dame uses their linemen to cut on screens sometimes, so it’s not like it isn’t part of the game for everyone).
Stanford has no such tradition. Really like the idea to rotate in UCLA, Cal and yeah maybe Stanford occasionally as the California trip in non-@USC seasons to keep going west at the end of the season.
I agree with your assessment, I’d much rather have navy than stabford, especially now that they’re buttcheeks on the field. I went to that 2019 game expecting gorgeous california weather, and got… not that.
but a counter point to the cut blocks:
While yes, all college programs cut block, the rate at which flexbone option teams do it is much higher, almost every play, vs once or twice a drive on screens and designed quick throws from other squads. To be honest, I have no clue why it’s legal, take a 280+lb human and have them throw at your extreme lower body while you’re preoccupied trying to chase a ball carrier. Further, I remember college o linemen cut block drills included a dive AND a gator roll forward to ensure you get cut… that stuff still gives me shivers to this day, I hate cuts, hate them hate them hate them.
All that said, I’d still rather have navy than stanford on the schedule, but in the ideal world, the rotating pac12 end-of-season game sounds best
Throw in a Fresno State or San Diego State trip once every 10 years too. Those programs are often as good as (or better than) Cal and Stanford, and we’ve tended to struggle with recruiting targets from Fresno. And San Diego is a lovely place to visit. That might be too many California teams to juggle, but I’m bored as hell of Stanford, and Cal doesn’t really do much for me either.
Could go for that for sure. Cal only appealing as what should be a P5 data point and easy victory, but it doesn’t do much so why bother indeed.
Oh, we ’bout to take over Fresno.
It seems silly to make people choose only one. I like both of your plans.
Also, aspirational peers is stupid in both football (they are nowhere near us) and academically (we are nowhere near them). Sure both schools aspire to be peers in the area where they fall short, but I also aspire to be peers with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates (hard pass on Bezos, Musk, and Zuck). That does not mean I should use the term aspirational peer with them.
That phrase cracked me up. Really, Notre Dame’s aspirational peer is a graduate-focused non-religious research institution in California? ND and Stanford have about as much in common as South Bend and San Francisco.
I’m not sure how much Stanford aspires to be a football peer, honestly. This is the place that had a .454 winning percentage from the Paul Wiggin Era through the Walt Harris Era (1980-2006), and was so bothered by it that they hired a guy from San Diego.
Fun anecdote: My boss at my previous job was a Stanford alum. He noted during the interview that I had gone to Notre Dame, and I said hopefully that won’t cause any tension between us. He looked at me completely befuddled, and after a few beats I said because of the football rivalry, and he made an almost imperceptible tilt of the head and said ah, I never really got into that.
Very on brand.
I’m surprised he didn’t reply by simply saying “football?”
Navy, no hesitation. And that’s not to say anything nice about Stanford in any way.
But Navy is a complete waste of a week at best.
i agree
replace navy with BC and purdue in alternating years,,,,
BC?
with, did I read that right, replace Navy with the Littlest of little brothers?
Tigers, my friend, have you been hanging out with your cousin 8-ball and his pile of cocaine?
that is classified
i must say i would never seriously advocate for nd to play purdue or bc more
or at all actually
I would rather play all 3 service academies every year than ever play BC again. Their fans are obnoxious. Their team is never particularly fun to watch. And I just don’t like them. Not really a rational argument, but there’s not much rational about being an ND fan.
Somebody does not remember the 2000s I think.
Oh and another thing:
No. Goddamn. Ireland. Games.
but what of dinner in dublin
well played
I don’t know what’s wrong with 45.9% of the voters. Maybe they had bad allergies, and their eyes were watering, and they couldn’t see right, and they accidentally clicked the wrong option? Only thing I can think of.
It’s Navy for me and it’s not close. You want to play them every once in a while and make a big pageant out of it, fine. The whole “debt of honor” thing is ridiculous – what they did for ND they did for over 100 other schools too, and it was more a marriage of convenience than anything else. They needed training space, and a whole bunch of schools had a bunch of empty space.
So in exchange for us being one of 100+ for a few years in the 1940’s, we play a no-win game in terms of public perception against a team that occasionally can be very good and for at least the last 25 years has also bordered on if not been outright dirty. Don’t believe me? Let’s check the tape from the 2009 game. I was also at the 1997 game, in which Rossum made a game-saving tackle as time expired, and in retaliation Navy started beating up band members until the Indiana state police stepped in and told them to cool it before things got serious. A friend of mine was a sax player who took a forearm to the face that busted his lip.
And on top of all that, they play a weird style that messes with your prep and your in-season flow. There’s literally zero benefit to playing them. None. Bye Felicia.
Do not appropriate Uncle Baby Billy for this devious cause! He would not support this!
I don’t know where the gif came from…Is he supposed to look exactly like Space Dad from Megamind?
I remember the cheap shot on Blanton in the ’09 game. I didn’t know about the ’97 game. I remember watching it but NBC probably cut away from the melee and so most people don’t know about it. Is there any footage available?
2 bad plays in the last 25 years, what mayhem!
Those are two major examples but I’m sure we could find more. You could tell, couldn’t you, that even Saturday’s game was chippy?
This is a different category than ‘dirty hits’, but the Navy kid who intentionally tangled himself up with Kyren Williams and then launched an insane flop when Jarrett Patterson came over to get him off Kyren to draw a flag can go screw off forever.
The Blanton cheap shot was as dirty as dirty gets. Way after the play had ended, from an angle Blanton couldn’t see, and a straight shot to his knees. Lesser hits have destroyed players’ legs.
The series should have ended that game. I don’t care that it would have ended on a Navy win. No ND player should be exposed to that. Cut Navy a check and tell them to pound sand. Maybe they can find some other opponent to pretend like they’re deserving of worship as heroes.
Speaking of dropping opponents, does anybody know when the ACC deal technically ends? I thought it was a 15 year deal or so when we signed it in 2013, but I can’t find anything definitive, nor can I find whether we’ve extended that deal.
I would like both Navy and Stanford off of future schedules, but I would really really love never having to play Duke or Georgia Tech or Boston College ever again.
I can only find references to it being 15 years long.
By the way, the Big East recently indicated it’s interested in expansion.
Just sayin’.
“The ACC is already home for all of Notre Dame’s Olympic sports, and that contract — which runs through 2036, in conjunction with the league’s TV deal — requires that, should the Irish ever want to join a conference in football, too, it has to be the ACC or the school would face a stiff financial penalty in excess of $150 million.”
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/31906339/notre-dame-college-football-realignment-power-independence
I saw they have all the ND/ACC football games announced through 2036 too. I know no one would want to hear this, but I bet ND would have MORE involvement with the ACC (aka full membership if somehow winning a conference is the best/only path to winning a national title) before ND has less involvement and left the ACC completely. Even though I doubt that happens either.
Well that’s an absolute bummer. You’re probably right.
Play Arizona State at the Cardinals stadium to end every other season, who says no
me a notre dame fan living in phoenix.
although visiting fans overtaking the home team would be pretty fitting for that stadium
I think ASU in Phoenix in late November is better than playing at Palo Alto in basically every conceivable way.
But who Phoenix? Tempe is the most beautiful place I’ve been.
this. yeah why cardinals stadium, which is actually glendale, whereas sun devil stadium is tempe, outdoors and close to mill ave and old town scottsdale. i’d be all for that
I’d be up for one or two Oct/Nov ASU home-and-home per decade. But I’m with Cardinal, in Tempe never in the Glendale stadium.
There is no doubt in my mind that Navy ought to be dropped for all the reasons many commentators have already expressed. But let me add a bit of perspective, since I am likely one of the older commentators on this site.
I went to ND starting in 1970 and graduated in 1974. I saw two Navy games while I was a student at ND in ’71 and ’73. I can tell you that, even back then, though we were just six years removed from Navy’s last victory over Notre Dame (we had barely started that long 40+ game winning streak), the Navy game was a big yawn on campus (probably the least anticipated game of the year). Indeed, of the two games I saw as a student at Notre Dame, I have no memory of the ’73 game (even though that was a National Championship year), and the only reason I remember the ’71 game is that it was the only ND football game my parents ever attended. And that game was boring. Nobody back then really cared that much about playing Navy.
Remember the first part of the third quarter of last Saturdays’ game, when Navy moved the ball down the field and got a FG? Do you remember a single play of that drive? No, because it’s boring football.
Although I agree with many of the comments regarding Stanford, I still get more excited for that game than I do Navy. Maybe it’s because Shaw is easy to dislike (I actually get a kick out of their mascot and band, though I agree with the decision to ban their band from our Stadium). If we switched them out for other West Coast teams occasionally, that would be pretty cool, though they likely won’t go for it since many of them have their own rivalry games at the end of the season.
Navy taking up 10 minutes to kick a pointless field goal was so perfect last Saturday. That is everything Navy football is.
Drop navy and add ohio state or Penn state or any consistently good blue blood
No, do not reward the Big 10 in any way…except Purdue. I will admit a soft spot for Purdue. Pick up BYU or other budding independents wherever possible. Make being an independent beneficial, encourage others.
BYU is pre-BIGXII. Not too many other independents available. Liberty and Army? And I think Liberty is going to some conference, I’m just not going to google “Liberty Football Conference” because I don’t want stupid articles popping up in a few months about Liberty football. C-USA maybe?
Yes, Liberty is going to C-USA as is New Mexico State. The only independents left will be us, Army, UConn and UMass, and the latter two are desperately trying to get into conferences as well.
The only B1G school I have a soft spot for is Michigan State. I don’t hate Purdue nearly as much as Michigan, mostly because Purdue isn’t important enough to hate at all, but they’re definitely in the Navy bucket of games that do absolutely nothing for us ever, just without the triple option.
OT: how on earth is ND behind Michigan and Michigan st in the playoff rankings?
A quick glance shows that we’ve beaten 2 top 25 teams, Mich 1 and Mich. st 0.
And either way, how are they both ahead of Oklahoma????
It’s not that Oklahoma has been so impressive, but what have Mich/Mich st. done that is so impressive there 1 loss puts them above an undefeated Oklahoma right now?
AND, after all the head to head matchup thing among relatively similar teams, how is Mich ahead of Mich st. 2 weeks after they lost to St?
So that when we eventually get ranked ahead of UC it wouldn’t look bad.
Committee rankings are exceptionally senseless this year. Michigan State beat Michigan, so I think that can justify a top 10 ranking, quality win. It is dumb Michigan is over MSU considering they just played!
MSU did lose by two scores to a Purdue team Notre Dame beat by two touchdowns…But I’d say that the committee is going to have a very hard ceiling on ND for losing to Cincy and not going to rate them too high. Michigan beat Wisconsin (ND’s best win) by 21 points themselves.
I’m with you that I’d have Oklahoma (5th best points/game and looking back to their old selves with Williams in) over both the Michigan teams. I guess it won’t matter in the long run since both the Michigan teams have to face tOSU.
Yeah, those rankings are perplexing. Do any of you watch Joel klatt? He had some scathing assessments last week of the cfp committee and today only added fuel to the fire.
Sheesh, this season is a mess overall, but I’ll wear the 8-1 blanket so warm and snug. By the end of the season, it’ll all buff out.
As stupid as the MSU-Michigan rankings are, ultimately, I don’t think it will matter. Both teams still have to play OSU & PSU. MSU should lose to OSU and Michigan will lose to OSU because #science. Things will get figured out. Also, IF/when both teams lose to OSU, MSU will still have the PSU game to climb back in the rankings and overtake Michigan for the non-Playoff NY6 B1G Bowl spot while Michigan’s last data point is a 33-point loss to OSU.
The real fun happens when both teams win out. (I assume then that MSU goes to the B1G championship game because of the h2h win.) Wisconsin beats them to get to 10-3.
fewer less fewer less6 or 5 or 4 or 3 or 2 or 1Agreed it won’t matter because they are both losing to OSU – just pointing out what seems silly at this point.
haha it would be funny if that’s what happened though.
This would be worth it for the befuddled look of Harbaugh when he’s 11-1, finally gets over the Ohio State hump and still isn’t even the Big 10 East division champ.
That said, no chance it’s happening because, like you said, #science that tOSU is going to beat them by a lot.
The scenario you describe is the only way I’d be OK with Michigan beating Ohio State this year. And even then, maybe not, because I fear the Wolverines would somehow cockroach their way into the CFP if they did.
They would get in based on the same criteria that FSU got the NC in the 93-94 season….”They have been working so hard, the darlings deserve a little push to get them there.”
Insufferable_Harbaugh_Intensifies.jpg
Did I stumble across an alternate 18 stripes taken over by ND Nation folks who only want “Tier one” teams on the schedule?
I kid, of course, but there is a BIT of truth to it. We are complaining about boring games – well, every team has to have them. At least we have not stooped to playing any FCS teams like everybody else (even usc, now, I think) has. Yes, we also have the occasional Toledo, etc., but you have to have a few body bags or tyiu can’t survive. I’m fine playing more games against top teams if everyone else does, too, but they don’t.
So, the problem seems to be, well why navy and Stanford? I suspect there are a lot of positives that far overcome the many legitimate negatives discussed in the article and comments, at least from an athletic director’s point of view. Both are willing to schedule games in November. Both offer great recruiting and alumni experiences, with games in California and all over the country (and Ireland). It’s two fewer games that the AD has to worry about when trying to piece together a very difficult schedule year in and year out.
I live Eric’s compromise plan and think most fans would jump at it. But the headaches of trying to implement it are likely too high, so it almost certainly won’t happen.
Anyway, this was a fun article with some really good points. I would be thrilled to never hear the term aspirational peer again or hear that stupid story about navy saving ND 80 years ago. But I guess they have to have something to talk about when the game ends 30 minutes early because navy can’t pass.
USC has not stooped to FCS. They tried to schedule UC Davis for this year’s opener, but fan revolt led them to cancel that game and get San Jose State instead. ND and UCLA are the only other 2 teams that haven’t yet done it.
UCLA has scheduled some games against HBCU’s that are in the FCS.
In the FWIW category, scouting guy Dane Brugler at The Athletic had Kyle #2 and Foskey #42 in his updated top 50 for the 2022 NFL draft.
Really getting the feeling more and more we’ve seen the last of Hamilton on the field for Notre Dame. Who plays on a knee 12 days out from a PRP therapy with that much ahead of him? No elite QB’s in the draft, could easily go in the 2-4 range. Just doesn’t make very much sense.
I think you are right. The comment, reportedly from KH, was he wanted to play again but would listen to his family. If they are smart, they are advising against it, and I would too if I was advising my kid that way.
But you never know, going out on an injury may stick in his craw. I can understand the competitiveness aspect there too.
Yeah, it’s simply the right call for his situation. Saturday will mark three weeks since he’s been on a football field, since he’s not been practicing this week. From an unemotional view, it makes no sense to throw him back out there when his conditioning can’t be right, and his knee is not that removed from an injury. With the future he has it makes no sense.
Most outlooks get caught up on the rookie deals, which are big money and all, but Harrison Smith has $128 million in career NFL earnings. Jamal Adams just signed a contract for 4 years, $70 million. That overall career earning potential for Hamilton is off the charts, but he’s not going to get to and through that second contract unless he gets to the first one healthy (Jaylon Smith says it all).
Rotate the service academies AND rotate the CA schools. Win Win.
There is only 1 answer. All the noise about Navy is a tale, told by an idiot Head Coaches Lets face it, the only Navy coaches anyone remembers are the last two – Paul Johnson and Ken N+10. Paul Johnson brought back the triple option after its CFB near death experience starting in the 90s. Respect is due there. You may hate Harbaugh, you may hate Shaw….I do for completely justifiable reasons. You may hate the man-ballness and the man-baldness of those two. I do, and you know you do too. However, the HarbShaw pales in comparison to the football hell that was unleashed upon us by the dual threat (Golf and Mediocrity) of Tyrone Willingham. A man so bad at coaching, Weis was an upgrade on the sideline. The word honey trap comes to mind. They made Ty Willingham look like a competent football coach, which set our program back half a decade when we so graciously took him off their hands. They set us up and we took the bait. As an aside, I will forever feel love/pity for UW. They got the Ty worse then we did, getting the Asst to the Asst Tiger Woods ball washer/CFB coach in his final form. But wait, there’s more – Fielding Yost coached at Stanford. Like his later spiritual descendent, Yost used Stanford as a stepping stone to Meatchicken. If you can be considered as a coaching amuse-bouche to the Skunkbears, then you really have no place on our schedule. To be quite frank, if Satan were to manifest himself on the sideline of an upcoming Stanford team, this would be an upgrade from the HarbShaw. Advantage – Middies Mascots Bill the Goat – As a mascot, almost as old as the game of football itself. Part of ancient naval tradition, historically attested as far back as the first Punic War, goats were part of the livestock kept on ships for pre-battle sacrifice On oceanic ships of the Age of Discovery forward, they were kept onboard for milk, meat, and other at-sea, morale boosting, activities which, as a Naval Officer and Gentleman, I shall not recount. A Tree – A mascot described best by the other options available at the time – Steaming Manhole, the Robber Barons, and the French Fry. The Tree needs some Spike 80DF as if it was an oak from Auburn A Color – So meta, so deep, so self-referential that only intellectuals such as themselves could conceive of and understand its brilliance. Advantage – Middies Fans USNA – I will be honest here. I cannot stand Academy types in their normal, daily persona. I have a number of Boat School friends, but they turn into hairy Werewolves of London beasts when ND-Navy time comes around. As fans, they travel, they dress well in the Service Dress Blues, are well mannered, and take their annual beatings with aplomb. Stanford stadium seats are red, so from an aerial view they looked like fans in red, I mean cardinal shirts.… Read more »
Please hit “Read More” it is formatted not a padded white room, unpunctuated rant.
Molto grazie.
The pleasure is all mine. Great work!
This one landed squarely in my hate zone. I like the Navy game and hate the Tree. It is like you wrote it for me.
This should be a piece by itself!
Umbrage taken with the Ted Danson slander. The Good Place was one of the best moral philosophy sitcoms of the last 15 years! Plus he’s married to Mary Steenburgen, and she’s a G-D treasure. They’re great on Curb. (And he didn’t graduate from Stanford – transferred to Carnegie Mellon.)
Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy Navy
Wow! Hi from Berlin, everybody… jus discovered this, thank you Eric for launching us on a wild and crazy virtually psychedelic (speaking of Palo Alto) trip.
OK, I was in the Stadium for the Staubach game, last time Navy was really good. And I do remember growing up in SB and my folks (including mom’s dad, the then Dean of Chemistry) making vague references to Navy’s presence keeping us “afloat”. So, the hundreds of other schools aside, that was a thing.
Having said that, I totally love Eric’s idea of just leave Navy the away games. And I do enjoy Dublin trips anyway, if only because I don’t have to fly as far.
Rotating West Coast teams would work, they would take Navy’s place for the home games, so home and home.