Landover, Maryland. (December 15, 2024): According to sports commentators, the military academies will soon be the “Unicorns” of college football as the last bastion of amateur athletics. In this photo by Benjamin Applebaum, West Point cadets cheer on their team despite suffering a tremendous upset at the hands of their archrival, Navy.
The service academies are called Unicorns for having escaped the recent controversy regarding paying college athletes to play football. In a landmark 2021 Supreme Court ruling, students were granted control over the use of their "name, image, and likeness" or NIL. The ruling held that students enjoy a legal right to control how their image is used, including for commercial purposes, and that they are entitled to seek compensation. The ruling has forever changed college sports by allowing student-athletes to profit from their fame. This is not so for military academy students, for many important reasons.
Unlike their civilian colleagues, academy students are considered federal employees and active-duty members of their respective service. For this reason, athletes are paid a salary, generally in the high fifties, and not allowed to have outside employment. They enjoy free tuition, room, board, medical, and dental coverage. In exchange, students agree to serve five years on active duty and three in the reserves.
Because of their obligation to serve their country, academy students cannot use the NCAA’s “transfer portal.” The portal is an online database that allows college athletes to declare their interest in transferring to another school for a higher profile and more money. By attending a military college, students seek to become officers and leaders in our nation’s defense, something far greater than personal fame or fortune. These young warfighters are in it for other reasons.
The AP 19th ranked Army’s Black Nights were riding high entering the game having been undefeated through its first nine games and having gone on to win the ACC Championship. The Navy Midshipmen upset Army in a thrilling 31 to 13 win that featured a defensive tackle converting on a wild fake punt. On fourth and five from just past the fifty-yard line, defensive tackle Landon Robinson took a direct snap for a twenty-nine-yard gain. The Navy dominated on the ground, racking up 277 yards rushing, and quarterback Blake Horvath scored four touchdowns and ran for 207 yards.
This year’s game drew a massive audience, the biggest in more than three decades with an average of 9.4 million viewers.