That wouldn’t be a bad thing. It may bring back the days when the service academies were among the top teams in the country. It would be nice to see teams be successful with real students instead of the semi-literates that flood the football factory teams of today.
A good example of semi-literate thugs running the asylum in today's college football was Ole Miss, and their players going after the Mississippi State quarterback's legs. I see Breeland Speaks (the guy going after Nick Fitzgerald's legs after he's being held up) playing on Sundays, kneeling before the anthem, cheapshotting other players, cussing cops and the military, ie, being a typical NFL player.
“...It may bring back the days when the service academies were among the top teams in the country. It would be nice to see teams be successful with real students ...”
Perhaps citizens should rethink the entire concept of spectator sports. If we’re spectating, we’re not doing anything useful.
Organized team sports grew out of collegiate athletics in the 19th century, when physical fitness and team activities were believed to contribute to the formation of good character.
These notions are still given lip service at the federal service academies, but team members (especially football) are often recruited in everything but name despite regulations banning the practice. Cadets slated for a team enter service academies marginally qualified in other areas, then get showered with tons of extra help in academics when they falter (and they enjoy a number of minor perks all along). Many still get dismissed for poor academic performance. Hardly any stand high in academic ranking.
More troubling are the infirmities of character apparently induced by athletics: until the rise of sex harassment complaints in the 1990s, every major honor scandal at the United States Air Force Academy was centered on academic cheating. Entire cheating rings sprang up. The ringleaders were intercollegiate sports team members.
The notion of organized team sports as enhancements to the learning of military leadership has been moribund for decades. And the least military of sports took pride of place, over sports with more direct military relevance.
I attended USAFA in the early 1970s and as a member of the intercollegiate rifle team endured unending disrespect, from other intercollegiate team members and cadets in general: shooters were sneered at routinely, put down as “not real athletes” - despite the fact that by that point in USAFA’s existence, the rifle team alone had earned more All-American awards that all other teams combined.