The Army Black Knights will play Princeton in football in 2020.
The Ivy League school, which competes in the FCS, announced Tuesday that they’d be playing the West Point cadets in October of 2020.
Coming October 2020: The Ivy League champions are set to take on Top 25 FBS ranked @ArmyWP_Football at Michie Stadium in West Point, NY!! #MakeHi2t0ry pic.twitter.com/37bVuAyg0c
— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) August 13, 2019
Right off the bat, I want to make sure nobody confuses my criticism of Army’s scheduling as disrespect towards the troops. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
I love our badass Army. Nobody loves the United States military more than I do, and nobody does their best to bring them as much attention as I do.
So, before you all try to kill me for what I’m about to say, just remember I routinely carry the banner of the Army and defend it at all costs. It’d be damn hard to find somebody more patriotic than me.
Having said that, this is a really bad decision for Army’s football team. It’s an awful one, and it doesn’t make much sense.
The Black Knights have had some solid success recently, and played Oklahoma really tough last year. West Point needs to be scheduling games against Power 5 and Group of 5 opponents.
Playing FCS scrubs is a gigantic step in the wrong direction.
Army has appeared to jumped right over Navy in terms of the better football team, and they need to elevate their profile.
That’s not going to happen by playing cupcakes. That’ll only happen by playing powerhouse teams, which they’re doing this year with a game against Michigan.
If the Black Knights want to be viewed as a real football team, then they have to play real competition. Playing an FCS team is nothing more than a glorified practice.
I want Army’s football team to dominate. I’m already on record saying I want them to beat Michigan, and I hope they do in week two.
However, scheduling Princeton and any other weak team goes against everything our military represents. We’re all about strength, we’re all about power and never backing down.
Scheduling an FCS team is the exact opposite of all of that.
I love the military with the passion of a million nukes all going off at once, but I just can’t approve Army playing Princeton.
They’d be better off just canceling the game and scrimmaging. If they want to be viewed as a big boy football program, then they need to schedule much better competition. It’s really that simple.