Back Here In D.C. .

Back Here In D.C. . . Lots of people are crowing about the fact that the University of Maryland and the U.S. Naval Academy are going to renew their football rivalry beginning again in 2005.

But the Washington Times' Dan Daly isn't so sure it's a good idea:

Maryland and Navy are two football programs going in opposite directions. The Terps, fresh off their first major bowl game in a quarter-century, are threatening to break into the Top 25 again this season. Navy, meanwhile, is 1-7 and has given up 40 or more points in six games.

So it's hard to get very excited about the news that the schools will open the season against each other in 2005 — and that Ralph Friedgen and Debbie Yow wouldn't mind playing the Mids on a regular basis. If the point of a Maryland-Navy game three years hence is to mend fences, I'm all for that. It's ridiculous that relations between the institutions have been strained because of some incidents that took place in the '60s. But I'm not too keen on the idea of the Terps trampling the Mids like some homecoming opponent every year. I can't imagine it adding much to the quality of our sporting life.

Daly's asessment here is spot on. It's been a number of years since Navy was truly competitive at the Division I level (heck, they don't even have a realistic shot at beating Air Force), and Daly has another reason the folks at Maryland might eventually find the renewal of this rivalry not to their liking:

Here's something else for (Maryland Athletic Director) Debbie Yow to consider: One of the reasons Georgetown dropped football in 1951 is that it had been pounded the previous season by big schools like Penn State, Miami and, yes, Maryland. There's been talk for years about Navy dropping to Division I-AA, and perhaps the Mids will at some point — painful though it would be. But if I were the Terps, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with the decision.

Absolutely right. Of course, there's one big reason this game will come off at least once -- money, and lots of it. And if the payoff is big one year, it will keep happening even if the game itself becomes an annual embarassment.

Eric 01:07 PM

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