My idea is to open up the Commander and Chief trophy to more than those three schools and really up the competition for the trophy. Then the winner of that trophy would face the winner of a seperate division 1B after the 1A super-conference. Any other fower FBS teams would then move to 1C and former FCS would be 1D. Scholarships numbers would drop at each level making it more likely that each team would get in.
Commander and Chief Division
Air Force Academy
The Air Force is currently in the running for this trophy and is one of the traditional service academies. An obvious selection.
Army Black Knights
The Army Black Knights are an obvious choice as they are currently in the running for the trophy anyway. We all think of this team as a service academy.
The Citadel
The Citadel is a 4 year public college that also enrolls civilians, but it is traditionally a military school and is known as a military school. This school is currently an FCS school so their competition level rises from being promoted to just behind the Top 80 schools.
Coast Guard Academy
The Coast Guard Academy is located in New London, Conneticut. There is no school that benefits more from this school than the Coast Guard Academy. By including this team people realize that the Coast Guard is a service academy. More ignorant people are now informed that the Coast Guard is a military branch. This school gets a huge increase in competition as they move from Division 3 to above where the former FCS division was. It will likely take them 2 or 3 years to compete at a high level, but it is exciting to join the big time. They could probably strike a major hire for head coach as well. Finally, the bump should see the football facilities get a massive makeover.
Merchant Marine Academy
The Merchant Marine Academy is located in Great Neck, New York. It is very similar to the Coast Guard Academy in that it is a service academy. More like the Coast Guard is that people don't realize it is the 5th Service Academy. These guys are also Division 3 currently and would likely see the same bumps projected by the Coast Guard. We'd also likely have more athletic people entering the military to start because elite athletes would want their scholarships. They could see a lot of transfers from smaller schools.
Navy Midshipmen
The other traditional service academy and the strongest football program currently of the group.
Norwich University
Norwich is a private senior military college that also enrolls civilians. This school is located in Northfield, Vermont. They currently compete at the Division 3 level of NCAA and would be another school receiving quite the athletic bump from inclusion.
University of North Georgia
Another school that is a public senior military college also enrolling civilians is the University of North Georgia. It is located in Dahlonega, Georgia. They currently compete at the Division 2 level of NCAA so they don't have as far to go as some others. The issue is that they don't even have a football team currently. That issue would make this team by far the hardest to incorporate in this scenario. However, if this scenario were implemented, we could fast track that stadium and have them play locally early on.
Virginia Military Institute
VMI is a public four year military college. It is the only of its kind and located in Lexington, Virginia. This school does not really enroll civilians so it is different from those public universities. they compete on the FCS level currently for football, so it would be a slight bump up in play. This school would face teams that are more like them in makeup as well.
The only issue other than getting the smaller schools up to snuff early on is that Air Force is West and all these other schools are East Coast.
Military Friendly Schools
Buffalo
Played Army this year and is a great geographic fit for this scenario. Their main rivalry on the other side could be the Merchant Marine Academy. They would play at least once a year.
Connecticut
UCONN also played Army this year and is a geographic fit. The main service rivalry for them would be the Coast Guard Academy based on that school being located in the same state.
Delaware Blue Hens
The Delaware Blue Hens have traditionally been a very strong FCS school with a historic background. They have played military schools in the past and are a great fit for a rivalry with Navy. This case being stronger by the fact that the Baltimore Ravens starting QB went to Delaware. This matchup every year would be exciting to see.
Georgia Southern
A school that just moved up to the FBS level this season and beat Florida last year is a school that deserves to stay above some current FBS schools. These guys would be the main rival for the University of North Georgia.
Harvard
While this school would be the rival for Norwich in this scenario, you include them here to keep their true rivalry with Yale alive. It allows you to include Yale in this scenario and keep their two biggest rivalries alive (Army and Harvard). Without a true rival for Norwich they are a perfect fit to play Harvard. This rivalry could really grow into something special.
James Madison
JMU is currently an FCS school like VMI and they play that school from time to time. Why not bring that matchup to a higher level and keep one of the most exciting FCS matchups (JMU v. Delaware)? This is a no-brainer to have Madison as VMI's rival.
New Mexico
New Mexico is one of Air Force's biggest rivalries in the Mountain West. They keep that rivalry and matchup while getting to play more military schools.
Wake Forest
Has played numerous service academies in the past and is a great fit for a rivalry with the Citadel. They are the one Power 5 school that got left out of the Super Conference, so it makes sense to put them at the next highest level. The Citadel is from the next state over and regularly plays ACC and SEC schools so they are a natural fit for a rivalry.
Yale
The Yale-Army game is one of the most storied matchups in the history of college football, it only makes sense to keep it going.
For these Military Friendly Schools, I picked schools that either played a military school this year, I consider more of a traditional rival, or are a made-up rivalry based on Geography. The issue again here is that New Mexico is far West from the other schools.
Sample schedule for Navy
8/30 Navy v. Delaware (Neutral Site)
9/6 Navy @ North Georgia
9/13 Wake Forest @ Navy
9/20 Navy @ Norwich
9/27 Merchant Marine Academy @ Navy
10/4 Navy @ Air Force
10/11 VMI @ Navy
10/25 Navy @ Citadel
11/1 Coast Guard Academy @ Navy
11/15 Navy @ Georgia Southern
11/28 Yale @ Navy
12/13 Navy v. Army (Neutral Site)
12/31 Division 1-B Championship Navy v. Wake Forest
There are obviously some complications in this model, but if they can work out the kinks I absolutely love it. This would bring more attention to our other military schools and would help each school get better athletes. I have no doubt that Army would field a better team if it had more pull than Tulsa etc. A 1B school would become more desirable than a 1C school and thus Army would be more desirable than about 20 schools they are less desirable than now. Virginia Military Institute would become far more desirable etc. Not to mention that these schools would have some awesome up and coming coaches. It would probably be easier for the big schools to determine who the great coaches were too. Right now Kirby Smart could be coaching VMI instead of being Bama's defensive coordinator, and Craig Bohl could be coaching the Coast Guard Academy instead of Wyoming. The coaching aspect could be a thrilling part of this scenario. You could have some brilliant young minds in fantastic matchups that really meant something. The military rivalries would be spiced up for sure.
While the travel issues would be real for the Western schools, these games would generate so much income that I don't think they would care. Every school with the exception of Wake Forest would be taking a step up in stature. This would help them to improve facilities and as stated earlier get better coaches. The scenario I present would get a sweet TV deal and every game at least on the military side would be must see TV. These rivalries would start to become epic. The intrigue of the games in this scenario are infinitely better than seeing any of these teams pummeled in their current setup. Although Air Force and Navy do quite well in their current placing. I absolutely love this idea and while it is extremely unlikely to happen, if we go the Super Conference route, it should happen.
No matter what we do though this is the one rivalry that must be protected under any scenario. It will always be America's best!
There just isn't a lot of harm to adding a little extra to those two. VMI could be an epic rival too!
-Noland
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