How The Academies Compete

[The XtC]

[quote="Stallion"]So you are disregarding the opinions of the Academy Head Coaches and Athletic Director's who each stated that these Academies are essential, that Air Force was wiping the floor when it was the only Academy with a Prep School and that now once Navy got their Prep School they are annually going to Bowl Games.
[/quote]

Don't know how to tell you this, but Navy "got" their Prep School (NAPS) in 1915. The school changed locations a few times during the WW1 and 2, but their permanent location in Newport RI was opened in 1943. The Army prep school (USMAPS) opened in 1946. The Air Force Prep school opened in 1961. So, USAFAPS was actually the last of the prep schools established.

I first became aware of the academy prep schools during the SMU/Navy game (debacle) in 1995. I was watching the game (train wreck) with a friend who had just gotten out of the Army, and he pointed out how many of the players on Navy's roster had graduated from NAPS. He said it was common with all 3 service academies (this was 12 years ago) and had been for years. He told me that many of the prep school guys were actually a few years older, because they had gone straight into the army or Navy from high school, but then expressed an interest in going to the academy, and had been sent to the prep school. It was a way for guys whose academics werent quite up to the academies standards to get their grades up.

When Navy humiliated SMU in 1995 (33-2) and 1997 (46-16), a large percentage of their players came from NAPS. Roughly the same percentage of prep school players were on the Navy teams that went 3-30 from 2000-2002. Navy didnt win a road game for 3 years, and lost 12 straight games before breaking that streak at SMU, 38-7, in 2002. The point being that Navy used prep school players long before their current run under Paul Johnson, including seasons when they were winless. In 2002 they were 2-10, their only other win coming against a 1-11 Army team.

Air Force was never the only academy with a prep school, they were the last ones. And all 3 academies have gotten football players through the prep schools for decades, in both their up years and down. Prep school use has no direct correlation on their win-loss records.

[EastStang]

It seems like way back when I was in junior high school, that Bullis Prep outside of DC was somehow related to the Naval Academy (even their nickname was the Little Admirals). Then they severed ties with the Academy and moved to fancier digs in Potomac, Maryland around 1969. At that point they became the whipping boy for my high school for many years.

[Mexmustang]

Let's mark our progress. First game under our coach was a shellac'ing by Navy. Last night, six years later it shows we would again!

[Stallion]

There is a very interesting History of the US Air Force Academy and its scholarship support of its Prep Academy that runs pages and pages(see at bottom below), but there are a couple of reasons that anything prior to about 1976 is irrelevant. Why? Because the NCAA had no scholarship limitations until the 1970s-and even then there was very high limits. I believe the first limits were set at 125 scholarships. today, its about 35% per cent less. Therefore, this would have been no real disadvantage because each school essentially had their own feeder system. Plus, as discussed below the issue is not the existence of the Prep Schools-it is the use of the Prep Schools to assist the Athletic Programs at the Academies that is the key. I once read in an article that was posted on this board that Air Force had 70-75 players in the Prep School. Note the excerpt below which said the Prep Schools were limited to 45 TOTAL for the entire school until 1982. Not coincidentally, that is the approximate date of the reemergence of the Air Force Football Program. See the changes made below:



Key elements of the Falcon Foundation program in 1982 were:

Scholarships were valued at $2,500
There were now only 35 scholarships with funding support (12 were funded in perpetuity).
Scholarship sponsor charges for annually funded scholarships were raised to $3,000 annually.
The Air Force Academy removed the limit of 45 scholarships.


http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:G3 ... d=11&gl=us

[OR-See-Nee]

Let's get us a prep school. Oh, I don't know, maybe we could call it Blinn Junior College, Navarro Junior College, Glendale CC, etc.

[Water Pony]

Brillant idea. Perhaps we should recruit at these Prep Schools. Athletes are motivated, disciplined and committed.

The greater point is the disadvantage that talented and promising student-athletes have in considering the academies. In additon to the five year commitment to serve after graduation, the high school star is essentially opting out of the a possible professional career (few exceptions, e.g. Staubach, David Robinson, etc.).

I think the academies are smart to do this. The educational and social demands on these young men is tough. An extra year to prepare for the demands of the USMA, USNA and USAFA makes sense, especially if the incoming classes need diversity as well as more mature cadets/midshipmen.

I give the young men a lot of credit too; in effect they commit to 10 years of service (1 Prep, 4 academy and 5 active duty.) How many high schools kids can think that long term? The result is a possible career and a level of discipline and maturity I wish for everyone.

Go Black Knights, Go Middies, Go Falcons !

[Water Pony]

Let's mark our progress. First game under our coach was a shellac'ing by Navy. Last night, six years later it shows we would again!

Bingo! Building Vs surviving!