Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!
Today, we will take a look at the college transfer portal and how it has basically become college football's version of the free agent market.
We will also critique the controversial final rankings of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee post-Championship Week. We compare Florida State's situation with Ohio State's 2014 scenario and examine if the committee's revenue-driven approach overlooked the resulted in them ignoring all of the Seminoles' on field accomplishments.
Finally, we'll recognize the two standout athletes from our fall Mid Watch segment. Freshman Kiefer Black, who led Navy Water Polo team to the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Championship game, and senior Averi Miller, whose clutch play sealed an incredible comeback against Army to take the Star on Veterans Day.
Remember, your opinions matter, so join our Navy Sports Nation Group on Facebook to get in on our Question of the Day and keep the conversation flowing.
Related Links:
Today, we will take a look at the college transfer portal and how it has basically become college football's version of the free agent market.
We will also critique the controversial final rankings of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee post-Championship Week. We compare Florida State's situation with Ohio State's 2014 scenario and examine if the committee's revenue-driven approach overlooked the resulted in them ignoring all of the Seminoles' on field accomplishments.
Finally, we'll recognize the two standout athletes from our fall Mid Watch segment. Freshman Kiefer Black, who led Navy Water Polo team to the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Championship game, and senior Averi Miller, whose clutch play sealed an incredible comeback against Army to take the Star on Veterans Day.
Remember, your opinions matter, so join our Navy Sports Nation Group on Facebook to get in on our Question of the Day and keep the conversation flowing.
Related Links:
- The NCAA Football Transfer Portal: Big Commits, Top Recruits, What's Ahead
- Navy Volleyball Rallies to Defeat Army in Their Star Match
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
In 2019, roughly 6% of division one college football rosters were made up of players from the transfer portal.
What was that percentage during the 2023 football season?
A.) 21%
B.) 26%
C.) 29%
D.) 32%
In 2019, roughly 6% of division one college football rosters were made up of players from the transfer portal.
What was that percentage during the 2023 football season?
A.) 21%
B.) 26%
C.) 29%
D.) 32%
You can give us your answer on the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page.
Referencing our previous Question of the Day on the number of Navy Women's Rowing Hall of Famers, here are all 11 of them.
Laurie Coffey ('99)
Anne Gibbon ('03)
Shaunah Wark ('05)
Fiona McFarland ('08)
Katherine Ashton ('14)
Rebecca Freihofer ('14)
Brooke Mackno ('15)
Katherine Quinn ('15)
Rebecca Greenberg ('16)
Kathleen Heinbach ('16)
Darby Nelson ('16)
Referencing our previous Question of the Day on the number of Navy Women's Rowing Hall of Famers, here are all 11 of them.
Laurie Coffey ('99)
Anne Gibbon ('03)
Shaunah Wark ('05)
Fiona McFarland ('08)
Katherine Ashton ('14)
Rebecca Freihofer ('14)
Brooke Mackno ('15)
Katherine Quinn ('15)
Rebecca Greenberg ('16)
Kathleen Heinbach ('16)
Darby Nelson ('16)
Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Deep Div
You can click on the hyperlink above to make a $1 donation through Cash App if you like what you hear. You can also support the Mids and the show at the same time. Navy Sports Central is a proud affiliate partner of Fanatics.com, the Ultimate Fan Gear Store! Click on the link to start shopping now!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports as
we head into the holidays.
We see that Navy has closed thegap significantly in the Star
Series against Army.
The fight is on as the Mids andthe Black Knights are locked in
a tight race, with the first1-13 victories being crowned the
(00:35):
winner.
In our Sports Update, we'llbriefly recap the football team
season and then we'll see howboth swim teams picked up their
stars, and this is probably agood time to check in with the
wrestling team as well.
So stick around for all thatnews, as well as our deep dive
question of the day andmid-watch segments when we come
back.
(00:59):
Alright, we are less than twoweeks away from Christmas and
another semester is wrapping upin the yard.
Whether you are a regularlistener or this is your first
visit, thanks for taking thetime.
I will say right off the batthat my one day morning period
following Saturday's game isofficially over, and while I
still don't feel up to talkingabout it specifically, I'm at
the point now where I can atleast give you my thoughts on
the season, and, by the way,this is why I would make a
(01:22):
horrible post game analystfollowing a Navy loss to Army
and football.
In fact, there is a standingrule in my house that if the
Mids lose, no one is to bring upthe subject for at least a week
because I get so bummed out.
So obviously that's not theright frame of mind to be in to
deliver some hard hitting andunbiased post game observations,
and I'm not kidding about thateither.
For those seven days I don'twant to talk about the game.
(01:43):
I don't even want to hear itbeing brought up.
I stay away from anything thatreminds me of the loss in any
way during that time, and thatincludes reading our class
Facebook page.
I know that's a little bit overthe top, but I can't help it.
That's just the way I'm wired.
Now with that, let's go aheadand move on to my thoughts on
the season.
So I think it's probably bestto start with what my
expectations were going in.
(02:05):
Though Coach Newberry was aknown quantity, this was his
first season as head coach andit couldn't have been easy
taking over for a man like KenNeymar Tallolo, who was on the
sidelines for more Navy winsthan any other coach in the
history of the academy.
The other factors to considerwere a new offensive coordinator
who was sticking to the tripleoption, basic principles.
But let's face it, the criticalcomponents of Coach Chestnut's
(02:27):
systems were brand new to theplayers and the coach is still
on the staff who had to teach it.
So there was a learning curveon both sides there.
Now, defensively, I wasn't tooworried.
Certainly, having to deal witha team like Notre Dame would be
tough, but I felt like thedefense was good enough to keep
the mids in just about everygame, assuming they were healthy
.
So, taking all that intoaccount, I figured if the team
could finish at 6-6, with astretch goal of 7-5, I'd be
(02:50):
happy.
Obviously, the team came upshort on those numbers, so that
was kind of tough.
But the five wins, with threeof them being shutouts, was
something positive to keepbuilding on and I only see this
defense getting better underCoach Volcker.
Now, offensively, this was aboutas tough a season for Navy
quarterbacks as I can remember.
For whatever reason, it was areal challenge just putting
someone under center who wastotally healthy, whether it was
(03:11):
Ty Lavettai's knee and later ribinjury, or Blake Horvath's
thumb that knocked him out forthe rest of the year.
The football gods just were notkind to the mids of the season.
Learning a new offense is toughenough, but when a team winds
up having to start fourdifferent quarterbacks in one
year, developing someconsistency is a pretty tough
ask.
All that said, I think the teamfought hard in every game,
(03:31):
regardless of the situation.
I'm sure there are some playsthey'd like to have back, but
you really can't fault theeffort.
I feel especially bad for theseniors.
They arrived in Annapolis atthe height of the pandemic and
stuck it out for all four years.
It would have been great tosend them off with one more win
over Army, but that's just theway things go sometimes.
My hope is that the players whoare returning can use this
experience to get the team backto at least seven wins next year
(03:53):
.
Okay, that's all the time I'mgoing to spend on football.
The Mids weren't able to pick upthe star there, but there was
some great news to share withrespect to swimming and diving.
Both the men and the women beatArmy last week.
Now, it wasn't as easy as itmight have been in years past,
but as a competitor, I justthink having a few tough
contests during the course of aseason keeps athletes sharp, and
(04:13):
these two meets were a battlefor both squads.
Actually, though, the pointdifferential for the women was
closer than it's been since2000,.
I just didn't see the BlackKnights breaking that 34-year
losing streak to the Mids, andthe big reason was they were
going up against too much depthin some key races.
This was especially true in therelay events.
The Mids finished 1, 2, 3, 5 inthe 200-yard medley relay and 1
(04:34):
, 3, and 4 in the 400-yardfreestyle relay, to grab the
majority of the points in thosetwo races.
Still, the score was tightthrough 18 events.
And then Senior Gabi Baldwinwent into the water for the
200-yard backstroke.
Less than two minutes later shegot her hand on the wall first
and the Mids had the breathingroom they needed.
They held off the Black Knightsthe rest of the way, needing
only one of the five teams theyentered to finish the 400
(04:55):
freestyle relay to seal the winand grab the star.
And, as I mentioned earlier,they took three of the top four
spots, making the final score162-138.
So the Navy women swimming indiving streak against Army is
intact at 35 wins and counting.
Now, the outcome of the men'smeet was in doubt until the last
couple of events.
Things went back and forthuntil about the 200-yard
(05:17):
breaststroke, and that's whenNavy's Juan Mora who was, by the
way, a freshman competing inhis first Army meet swam a
career-best 154-53 to give theteam the momentum it needed.
The divers also played a hugerole by finishing 1, 2, and 4 in
the 3-meter springboard, andthey took the top three spots in
the 1-meter event as well.
There, blake Shaw was firstfollowed by Finnean Gelbach and
(05:38):
then George Moore.
That put the Mids in a positionwhere they only needed to
finish 2nd and 4th in the400-yard freestyle relay to get
the star, and they ended upgoing 2, 3, and 1 by final score
of 154-147.
So congratulations to both themen and the women on a couple of
hard-fought wins there.
And despite the outcome of thefootball game, the Mids are now
just one win behind the BlackKnights in the star competition,
(05:59):
which is fairly typical forthis time of the year.
The winter sports season islooking very competitive as well
, and now everyone's focus willshift to February, where there
will be seven stars on the line.
That month this year, becauseof the good start that Army got
off to, is going to beespecially tight.
The next step going forward isgoing to be really critical
(06:19):
getting to that magic number of13.
One of those big wins the Midsare looking to pick up is in
wrestling.
So I think this is a good timeto see how things are going with
Cary Kolat and and the rest ofthe team.
Now, in case you missed it, theMids are now ranked 17th in the
country following a couple ofbig early season wins against
Illinois and Pittsburgh, and infact they are currently 5-0 in
dual meets.
In their latest contest againstOhio, the team ran off five
(06:41):
straight victories and overcamea 6-0 deficit to win by a score
of 27-12.
Andrew Serniglia wrestled forthe first time in a month and he
came from behind to secure a7-5 win to get the Mids on the
board and cut into that earlyBobcat lead.
His classmate and team captain,grady Grease, was dominant in
his match, earning a majordecision by an 11-2 score.
Coach Colott noted in anearlier interview that the
(07:03):
team's depth is a real strengththis year and that could be a
real difference maker in acouple of months when Army comes
to Annapolis on February, the16th.
Okay, that's going to take careof our sports update and our
Deep Dive segment is coming upnext.
Alright, our Deep Dive segmenttoday is going to focus on the
(07:34):
changing landscape in collegefootball and specifically how it
might affect Navy and the otherservice academies.
But before we get going, I'dlike to thank my classmate, Doug
Conkey, for sending me severalof the questions that I use to
create this content.
Doug and I talk frequently viamessenger about Navy sports,
mostly football, but we'vediscussed others, including
basketball and lacrosse.
Anyway, Doug and I werechatting this past weekend about
(07:55):
a number of things related tocollege football, and the first
topic he raised was how thescheduling of the Army-Navy game
potentially impacts bowleligibility.
I think everyone who followscollege football knows that six
wins is typically what'srequired to qualify for a bowl
invitation.
Of those six, at least fivehave to be against an FBS
opponent.
So, in other words, teams cancount one win against an FCS
(08:15):
program, but not two, and that'sactually what got Army last
year.
They did end up with six wins,but only four were against an
FBS team.
So from a bowl qualifyingperspective, it didn't even
matter that they got that lastwin over the mids, they spent
the postseason at home.
Now it turns out that bowlinvitations usually go out right
after the conferencechampionship games, and that's
the first Saturday in December.
The Army-Navy game is played onthe second Saturday, and it's
(08:38):
been that way since 2009.
One big reason this change wasmade was to give the game its
own national stage.
Army Navy is the last collegefootball game played before the
bull season begins.
The conference champions havealready been decided and the
whole country can tune intoAmerica's game with no others to
worry about.
The one drawback is that by thetime the bullbits go out, both
Army and Navy will have onlyplayed 11 games.
(08:58):
So one legitimate question iswhat happens in a situation like
this season if either teampicks up their sixth win in this
rivalry game, it being the lastone of the year?
And furthermore, does itwarrant moving the Army Navy
game to an earlier date?
So the result isn't the booksbefore the bids go out.
I'll answer the last questionfirst.
Moving the date of the gameisn't necessary, at least the
way I see it, and here's why.
If you look at all the seasonsthe Mids have qualified for a
(09:21):
bull game since 2002, theypicked up that sixth win to
become bull eligible beforetheir 11th game every time
except 2014.
They beat South Alabama onNovember 28th of that year to
get to 6 and 5.
And that earned them aninvitation to the Poinsettia.
Bull Navy had an agreement toplay in that bull game if they
qualified.
That year and every otherseason the Mids played in a bull
game.
They picked up their sixth winwith a couple games to spare.
(09:42):
And if you're wondering abouttheir earliest date that they
qualified, that would be in 2004when they beat Rice on October
23rd to go to 6 and 1.
They later went on to defeatNew Mexico in the Emerald Bowl
30-19.
So I don't think moving thegame is necessary based on this
past history.
Besides, there isn't anotherdate available where Army Navy
would enjoy the same exclusivity.
We already know that the firstSaturday in December wraps up
(10:06):
Championship Week and even ifyou could schedule it on the
Sunday, going up against the NFLwould be rating suicide.
So I definitely prefer keepingthe Army Navy game on the second
Saturday in December.
Now that brings me around to thefirst question what happens
when the Mids or the BlackKnights get that sixth win in
the twelfth game of the year.
Truthfully, the short answer isnothing.
(10:27):
Remember that magic number ofsix only makes them eligible to
get invited to a bull game.
There's nothing automatic aboutit.
Now it is possible for aparticular bull committee to
have an agreement with the team.
Navy has done that more thanonce, with the most recent time
being with the Military andArmed Forces bull committees.
In a situation like that, ifthey didn't get that sixth win,
the committee would likely havea backup team in mind to fill
(10:48):
that spot.
Personally, it wouldn't botherme if the Mids didn't go to a
bull game in this situation.
I get the fact that they'dmissed out on some bull dollars
and that revenue is important tothe athletic program because it
can be spread across alldifferent sports.
But from a competitorstandpoint a team really should
have a winning record going intothat twelfth game to remove all
doubt when it comes to bulleligibility.
That's been the case for thepast 20 years for the Mids and I
(11:11):
don't see any reason for thatto change.
So in a case like this year,where the team needs that sixth
win in that last game to breakeven on the year, I'm okay with
them not going to a bull game,the extra revenue aside, a win
over Army still has some prettysignificant value from a
recruiting perspective.
The other topic that came upwhen Doug and I were exchanging
messages last week was how muchof an impact the transfer portal
(11:32):
is having on the college game.
All I can say is welcome tocollege free agency folks and at
the service academies.
That door only opens in onedirection.
In fact, my brother and I weretalking about this last weekend.
It seems like when theannouncers called out a player's
name after he made a play closeto half the time, it was
followed by the transfer from,you know, an insert school name
(11:53):
here.
It's pretty crazy stuff whenyou think about it.
I don't have any problem withthe athletes entering the portal
in an attempt to go withanother program.
They really should have thesame freedom as the coaches do.
But the thing that concerns meis making sure that they do it
for the right reasons.
For every Jalen Hertz and CalebWilliams, there are dozens of
players who entered the portaland wind up no better off or
(12:13):
even worse than they were before.
Those are the ones I worryabout.
Let me explain by brieflyrecapping the two success
stories.
Jalen Hertz was an outstandingquarterback at Alabama.
He was just a victim of somereally bad timing.
Hertz led the Crimson Tide toback-to-back national
championship games in 2016 and2017.
Unfortunately, they lost toClemson in 2016.
(12:35):
And the next year Hertz did getsome payback by beating the
Tigers in the college footballplayoffs semifinal, but he got
off to a rough start in thenational championship game that
year.
Coach Nick Saban made a changeafter half time and ended up
going with a very talentedfreshman by the name of Tua
Tagovai Loa.
Alabama ended up winning thatgame, beating the University of
Georgia in overtime.
(12:55):
Hertz played one more year inTuscaloosa before transferring
to Oklahoma for the 2019 season,and he had an outstanding
senior year, leading the Soonersback to the CFP semifinal when
many thought they wouldn't makeit back after Kyle and Murray
went to the NFL.
So for Jalen Hurtz, the transferportal was a pretty good move.
That senior season at Oklahomagot him drafted by the
Philadelphia Eagles and now he'sone of the league's top
(13:17):
quarterbacks.
Shortly after Jalen Hertz movedon to the pros, coach Lincoln
Riley recruited Caleb Williamsto come to play for him in
Norman.
But when the coach took theposition at the University of
Southern California, williamsentered the transfer portal and
followed him there.
That made perfect sense to me,of course.
He ended up winning a HeismanTrophy last year and, despite
having a bit of an off year thisseason, he'll probably still go
(13:39):
pretty high in the draft,assuming he turns pro.
So those are what I wouldconsider two transfer portal
success stories, but it doesn'talways work out that well for
everyone.
Now, technically, an athlete canonly enter the transfer portal
once, at least for right now.
There actually might be achange to that coming.
The second time would be ifthey decide to go to graduate
school, still have someeligibility left and want to
(13:59):
continue their college careerwherever they get their graduate
degree.
There are also waivers that canbe granted on a case-by-case
basis.
I imagine there are a lot ofthese being granted during the
pandemic, but I'm thinking theymay be occurring a little less
frequently now.
My main concern is that theathletes who are thinking about
entering the transfer portal aregoing into it with their eyes
wide open.
Do they have the right peopleadvising them?
Have they looked at thesituation from all angles?
(14:22):
If they're a scholarshipathlete, how's that going to be
affected?
Or is this just a knee-jerkreaction to a situation they can
overcome with a little bit morematurity.
Those are all importantquestions.
Now here's a guy I thoughtshould have never entered the
transfer portal, and the namemay surprise you.
It's Sam Hartman, whotransferred from Wake Forest to
Notre Dame after the 2022 season.
This year with the Irish washis sixth year playing college
(14:45):
football and he's 24 years oldNow.
I do want to clarify here thatI'm speaking strictly from the
position of Hartman's earningspotential as a pro quarterback.
There are also some factorsinvolving name, image and
likeness that drove his decision, and I get that.
Maybe you can't blame him forgrabbing the money while he can.
And, by the way, having astrong NIL infrastructure is
(15:05):
going to be a really valuablerecruiting tool for athletic
programs moving forward.
I'm just wondering if the oneat Wake Forest had that much
less to offer compared to NotreDame's.
Anyway, let's stick to thefootball discussion here.
In his two previous seasons atWinston-Salem, hartman led the
Demon Deacons to an outstanding11-3 record, including a bowl
win.
They followed that up in 2022by going 8-5, defeating a tough
(15:27):
Missouri team in their bowl gamethat season.
Hartman racked up some prettyimpressive numbers during that
time and I'm sure the pro scoutswere watching him closely.
Then he decides to enter theportal and wound up landing in
South Bend.
My guess is that othersconvinced him that it would be
good for his career.
Notre Dame was still a bigbrand name in college football
and he would be on national TVjust about every week.
Finally, he probably thought itwas a chance to compete for a
(15:51):
national championship, though,given how Notre Dame stacked up
against the top half dozen teams, I personally didn't see that
happening.
It turns out things didn't go asplanned.
Notre Dame finished at 9-3, andthey never really threatened to
crack the top 5.
I think the closest they gotwas number 9.
The Irish merely won the gamesthey were supposed to win with
Hartman under center.
Now, if they had beaten OhioState, that would have been
(16:11):
something.
But the Buckeye defense heldHartman to just 175 passing
yards, which was 50 yards belowhis average of 225, and the
Irish lost in the final secondsof the game.
In the loss to Louisville, hegot picked off three times and
finally, in Notre Dame's thirdset back against Clemson, the
Tigers defense really shut himdown.
Hartman was just 13 or 30 for146 yards.
(16:32):
He didn't throw a touchdownpass and he was intercepted
twice.
The Irish finished the seasonranked number 16 in the country,
and I thought that was prettygenerous considering they had
three losses.
My point is, if the goal was toimprove his draft stock, Hartman
would have probably been betteroff staying at Wake Forest.
The NIL dollars up front wassomething he had to look at, but
I wonder how that stacks upagainst a rookie contract for a
(16:53):
first round NFL draft pick atquarterback.
Hartman was a much moreprolific passer at Wake Forest,
so staying in that system andadding to the numbers certainly
couldn't have hurt.
Mzir at Notre Dame had itsmoments, but his touchdown
passes dropped by over 36%.
He went from 38 down to 24, andhe had 79 fewer completions on
(17:13):
127 fewer attempts.
There was no improvement tospeak of in Hartman's game and
by transferring he may have verywell cost himself a first round
NFL contract where the money issignificantly better.
Here's another interesting factas of today, there are over 100
quarterbacks in the transferportal.
About 100 players, 100quarterbacks.
Now think about the dominoeffect this can have on certain
(17:36):
programs.
How much impact does chasing aplayer in the portal have on
developing the athletes who arealready in your program?
I'd be curious to know whatstrategies these top tier
programs have in place forrecruiting and developing high
school athletes versus the useof the portal.
My gut tells me thatmaintaining a solid recruiting
pipeline to quality high schoolprograms remains the path to
long term success, but I couldbe wrong, I guess, at this point
(17:57):
.
Only time will tell.
By the way, I do want to raiseone more issue before wrapping
up this discussion on thetransfer portal, and that is how
all these changes affect Navy'sability to stay relevant, or
Army or Air Force for thatmatter.
I think, because of the type ofplayer Navy coaches are looking
for, it won't have a hugeimpact.
Now don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying it doesn't hurtto lose a linebacker like Chad
(18:19):
Hodges, who wound up a starterat TCU after he entered the
portal in 2021.
The fact is, the team willalways have a small number of
players who exceed expectationsin their development.
That, coupled with the factthat maybe they wanted to play
Division 1 football more thanthey wanted to be a Navy or
Marine Corps officer, meant thatgoing into the portal was the
right move for them.
Mikhail Hayward is another goodexample.
(18:39):
He's at Appalachian State nowand doing pretty well, but I
think most football players whodecide to go to Navy understand
the value proposition.
They are very talented threeand potentially four star
athletes who want to be part ofsomething bigger first, but
still want to compete infootball at the Division 1 level
.
The Naval Academy gives them achance to do just that.
So, despite the transfer portaland some of the rule changes
(18:59):
that limited the effectivenessof the triple option, I really
believe that Navy and the othersurface academies can still have
a seat at the table.
It's all about adapting and itdoesn't hurt to have their
proper perspective either.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation Group Facebook
(19:20):
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio, it
doesn't matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
(19:42):
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Okay, thanks for staying withus on Navy Sports Central.
(20:09):
Karl Darden here with you, andI'd like to take a few minutes
in part two of our deep divesegment to discuss how the
College Football PlayoffSelection Committee really
messed up the final rankingsfollowing Championship Week.
At least in my mind they did.
The reason I say this isbecause the committee's decision
didn't necessarily focus on howall the teams performed on the
field, and the team that gotleft out was penalized for how
(20:31):
the committee thought they weregoing to play moving forward,
and as far as I'm concerned,they had no business doing that.
The key driver for all thecommittee's decisions is money,
and that shouldn't come as ashock to anyone.
They make their selectionsbased on the matchups they think
will generate the most revenue.
Now, the committee has oftenlisted the different factors
that figure into the finalrankings, which eventually
determine College Football'snational champion.
(20:52):
Strength of schedule is one youhear quite a bit, although
Georgia would have qualified forthe playoff with a ranking of
45 had they beaten Alabama inthe SEC championship.
So I guess I'd say that thecommittee is fairly flexible on
that metric, going undefeatedchecks in other box.
The committee also made a pointof saying that a team that wins
their conference championshipreally puts themselves in a good
position to qualify.
(21:12):
So it would stand to reasonthat if a team was an undefeated
conference champion, it wouldbe extremely tough to keep them
out of the playoff withoutlosing a boatload of credibility
.
And then, finally, there's thatall-important and supremely
objective eye test, which is aterm so vague that it could mean
just about anything, dependingon the team in question.
So, coming out of championshipweek, you had the following
Power Five Conference champions.
(21:33):
First there was Washington.
They were ranked third goinginto the Pac-12 championship
game against number five rankedOregon, and they won a very
close game, 34-31 to finish theregular season.
Undefeated Michigan easilydefeated Iowa 26-0 to win the
Big 10 title.
They finished with a cleanslate as well.
Next year had Texas beat an18th ranked Oklahoma State to
clinch the Big 12.
The Longhorns did lose the gameto 12th ranked Oklahoma and
(21:56):
their best win was over Alabamain week two, but, as we saw,
that was a much different team.
At the end of the year, theCrimson title overcame a slow
start to qualify for the SECchampionship and they managed to
knock off previously undefeatedand number one ranked Georgia.
Coach Sabin's team finished12-1 to make their case for the
playoff.
Finally, florida State wentinto the ACC championship
without a loss and without theirnumber one quarterback.
(22:17):
Their defense dominated a 15thranked Louisville team that
averaged 31 points a game.
The Seminoles kept theCardinals out of the red zone on
all but two occasions and eventhen the result was just a
couple of field goals.
The final score was 16-6.
So, based on these outcomes, Ifigured Michigan and Washington
were deadlocks at number one andnumber two, since Georgia had
lost.
That left Alabama ranked eighthgoing into the SEC championship
(22:38):
.
Next was Florida State, who wasranked fourth going into theirs
, and Texas was right behindthem at number five.
Now, keep in mind that of theseconference champions, only
Florida State was undefeated andthe Louisville team they beat
was ranked higher than OklahomaState.
I thought the committee wouldprobably go with Florida State
and Texas at numbers three andfour, based on the fact that
Georgia would likely slide outof the top four, which would
move the Seminoles and Longhornsup one spot each.
(23:00):
That would tick off a lot ofAlabama fans, since the Crimson
Tide beat a team in Georgia thathad been number one ranked and
undefeated.
There's also never been aconference champion that was
left out of the playoffs.
Unfortunately there was nogetting around that this year
because the remaining threeteams all were conference
champions.
So I figured okay, I can livewith Alabama leapfrogging Texas
because they beat number oneranked Georgia.
(23:20):
So I was pretty amazed when thefinal rankings came out, with
Texas moving to number three andAlabama to number four.
That left Florida State theonly undefeated team of the
three, on the outside looking in.
But what was even moreincredible was hearing what the
committee chairman, Boo Corrigan, said to defend the decision.
He said that quote FloridaState was just not the same team
unquote after their quarterback, jordan Travis, suffered a
(23:43):
broken leg in the 11th gameagainst North Alabama.
So basically he was saying youknow we didn't choose FSU
because we don't think they'regoing to be able to compete on
account of their number onequarterback being out.
We don't care what they did onthe field up to this point and
I'm sorry, but what a littlecrap.
That was because nine years ago, in 2014, ohio State lost their
first and second stringquarterback going into the Big
(24:05):
Ten championship.
They ended up rolling Wisconsinwith Cardale Jones under center
, who was the number three guy.
The committee slotted them atnumber four.
Then the book guys knocked offtop ranked Alabama and number
two Oregon the win the nationaltitle.
So there is a precedent herefor the committee selecting a
team with an injured firststring quarterback.
That time they did the rightthing.
Sure, ohio State's top two QBswere out of commission, but the
(24:25):
book guys had earned theirticket to the playoff on the
strength of how they played allyear and, by the way, they did
have one loss that season.
This time, though, the committeetotally blew it, and all of Boo
Corrigan's hot air about FSUnot being the same team without
Jordan Travis should not havebeen a factor.
That didn't matter nine yearsago, and it shouldn't have
mattered two weeks ago.
What the committee completelyignored was how good Florida
State was overall.
(24:46):
They put a monster defense onthe field pretty much all season
long.
It was ranked higher than theLonghorns in both team defense
and scoring defense.
In fact, the Seminoles wereranked sixth in that metric.
Corrigan's statement was atotal slap in the face to
everyone on the Florida Stateteam.
When the team went down, thedefense knew they had to step up
and they did just that.
But the committee basicallyjust gave them the finger by
dropping them out of the topfour in favor of Texas, even
(25:08):
though the Seminoles beat ahigher ranked team in their
championship game, had a betterdefense and were ranked higher
in scoring offense.
The bottom line is teams shouldnot be penalized in their
rankings because of an injuryuntil that team shows they
couldn't overcome it.
The fact is that Corrigan andthe committee had no freaking
idea how Florida State wouldhave performed in the semifinal
game.
They should have just let thematter be decided on.
Feel like it was in 2014.
(25:28):
We'll be back shortly.
Okay, we are making the finalturn and heading down the home
(25:49):
stretch, and it is time for ourquestion of the day.
Our last one was two episodesago, when we featured the
women's rowing team, and here'sa question.
The women's rowing team had twovarsity eight crews inducted
into the Navy Sports Hall ofFame.
They were from the 1v8 boats inboth 1992 and 1994.
How many individual rowers fromthe program have earned that
(26:09):
distinction since 1980?
Is it A8, b11, c14, or D18?
It looks like the most popularanswer was D18.
50% of those who respondedchose that one.
Next was B11.
There were 37% of you whoselected it, and then there were
(26:30):
12% that thought C14 was thecorrect choice.
No one picked A, which was A8.
It turns out that the rightanswer was B.
There have been 11 individualrowers from the Navy women's
team that are in the Hall ofFame.
The first to earn that honorwas Lori Coffey from the class
of 1999, and the most recent onewas Darby Nelson from the class
of 2016.
I'll go ahead and list theother Hall of Famers than the
show notes and, by the way, youcan bet that Alexandria
(26:52):
Valancey- Martinson and LaurenDay will be joining them in the
future.
Okay, now here's our questionfrom this episode.
In 2019, roughly 6% of Division1 college football rosters were
made up of players from thetransfer portal.
What was that percentage duringthe 2023 football season?
Was it A, 21%, b, 26%, c, 29%or D, 32%?
(27:14):
And just so you know, theseanswers are all rounded up to
the nearest whole number, sotake some time to think about
your response and when you'vegot one, just go to the Navy
Sports Nation group Facebookpage and make your choice there.
I'll have that question up bythe end of the day.
Now let's go ahead and finish upwith our last midwatch segment
of the fall sports season.
We're going to start withKiefer Black first and, as you
may recall, he is a freshman onthe water polo team.
(27:35):
Black just capped off a prettyamazing year.
The Mids made it all the way tothe Mid-Atlantic Water Polo
Conference Championship gamebefore dropping a very close
contest at 15th ranked 40thUniversity.
The final score was 12 to 10.
But Black was named the rookieof the tournament.
He led the team with four goalsand for the year he finished
with 68 goals and 57 assists andthat gave him a total of 125
(27:57):
points overall.
That ranks as the third mostever in the history of the
program for one season.
And remember, black still hasthree years left to play and
somehow I don't think that thisis the last championship the
Mids will compete for while he'sat Annapolis.
Next we've got Averi Miller,the senior setter from the
volleyball team.
Now you all may remember thatour last podcast episode was a
little special in that wefocused solely on the women's
(28:18):
triathlon team at the nationalchampionships.
That very same day, which wasNovember 11th, the Mids took on
Army in volleyball at the Wesley, a Brown field house with the
star on the line, and it was onethe Mids really needed because
the Black Knights had gottenafter a pretty good start in the
overall series.
Now the match did not startvery well.
Army took the first two sets bya fairly comfortable margin.
The scores were 25-16 and 25-18.
(28:40):
So now the team was in a reallytough spot.
There was absolutely no roomfor error as the Mids tried to
extend the match.
And then in the third set theyfound their rhythm, with Miller
setting up her outside hittersJordan and Jamie Llewellyn.
They fought their way back andtook the third and fourth sets
by identical 25-20 scores.
Now, for those of you who maynot know, the fifth and deciding
set is played to 15 points.
(29:00):
So everyone is that much moreimportant.
I mean you just can't afford togive a point away.
Navy got out early, but Armycame back to tie the score
already 11.
The Mids then won three of thenext four points to make it
14-12.
And by this time the fieldhouse was going absolutely
berserk.
Avery Miller was having herusual solid match she had dealt
out 38 assists and come up with18 digs to lead the team in both
(29:21):
of those statistical categories.
But remember, at 6-1.
Miller also poses an offensivethreat and at this point in the
match she had three kills aswell.
That gave her 199 for hercareer.
Her 200th was one she'll neverforget, taking a back set from
freshman Arlie Hansen.
Miller approached from theright sideline and unleashed a
thunderbolt that tore rightthrough the hands of two Army
(29:41):
blockers and hit the floor formatch point and the place just
exploded.
The Mids completed the mostunlikely of comebacks, and I say
that because the final numbershowed that Army led in just
about every statistic, exceptfor aces.
Navy had a 5-3 edge there.
So that basically tells you howwell the Black Knights played
in the first two sets.
But as we all know, it's nothow you start, it's how you
finish, and both Averi Millerand the Navy volleyball team
(30:03):
showed that terrific route atWest Brown.
Just how it's done, and onVeterans Day no less.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcast and remember to get
the word to all the other Navyfans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankmy classmate, doug Conkey, for
(30:25):
providing the questions that Iused to develop the content for
this episode's deep dive segment.
And, by the way, you guys canfeel free to do that anytime you
like.
You'll always get a mention onthe show, and I think it's a
really good way for us to stayconnected.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
Group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
(30:46):
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
(31:06):
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports as
we head into the holidays.
We see that Navy has closed thegap significantly in the Star
Series against Army.
The fight is on as the Mids andthe Black Knights are locked in
a tight race, with the first1-13 victories being crowned the
(00:35):
winner.
In our Sports Update, we'llbriefly recap the football team
season and then we'll see howboth swim teams picked up their
stars, and this is probably agood time to check in with the
wrestling team as well.
So stick around for all thatnews, as well as our deep dive
question of the day andmid-watch segments when we come
back.
(00:59):
Alright, we are less than twoweeks away from Christmas and
another semester is wrapping upin the yard.
Whether you are a regularlistener or this is your first
visit, thanks for taking thetime.
I will say right off the batthat my one day morning period
following Saturday's game isofficially over, and while I
still don't feel up to talkingabout it specifically, I'm at
the point now where I can atleast give you my thoughts on
the season, and, by the way,this is why I would make a
(01:22):
horrible post game analystfollowing a Navy loss to Army
and football.
In fact, there is a standingrule in my house that if the
Mids lose, no one is to bring upthe subject for at least a week
because I get so bummed out.
So obviously that's not theright frame of mind to be in to
deliver some hard hitting andunbiased post game observations,
and I'm not kidding about thateither.
For those seven days I don'twant to talk about the game.
(01:43):
I don't even want to hear itbeing brought up.
I stay away from anything thatreminds me of the loss in any
way during that time, and thatincludes reading our class
Facebook page.
I know that's a little bit overthe top, but I can't help it.
That's just the way I'm wired.
Now with that, let's go aheadand move on to my thoughts on
the season.
So I think it's probably bestto start with what my
expectations were going in.
(02:05):
Though Coach Newberry was aknown quantity, this was his
first season as head coach andit couldn't have been easy
taking over for a man like KenNeymar Tallolo, who was on the
sidelines for more Navy winsthan any other coach in the
history of the academy.
The other factors to considerwere a new offensive coordinator
who was sticking to the tripleoption, basic principles.
But let's face it, the criticalcomponents of Coach Chestnut's
(02:27):
systems were brand new to theplayers and the coach is still
on the staff who had to teach it.
So there was a learning curveon both sides there.
Now, defensively, I wasn't tooworried.
Certainly, having to deal witha team like Notre Dame would be
tough, but I felt like thedefense was good enough to keep
the mids in just about everygame, assuming they were healthy
.
So, taking all that intoaccount, I figured if the team
could finish at 6-6, with astretch goal of 7-5, I'd be
(02:50):
happy.
Obviously, the team came upshort on those numbers, so that
was kind of tough.
But the five wins, with threeof them being shutouts, was
something positive to keepbuilding on and I only see this
defense getting better underCoach Volcker.
Now, offensively, this was aboutas tough a season for Navy
quarterbacks as I can remember.
For whatever reason, it was areal challenge just putting
someone under center who wastotally healthy, whether it was
(03:11):
Ty Lavettai's knee and later ribinjury, or Blake Horvath's
thumb that knocked him out forthe rest of the year.
The football gods just were notkind to the mids of the season.
Learning a new offense is toughenough, but when a team winds
up having to start fourdifferent quarterbacks in one
year, developing someconsistency is a pretty tough
ask.
All that said, I think the teamfought hard in every game,
(03:31):
regardless of the situation.
I'm sure there are some playsthey'd like to have back, but
you really can't fault theeffort.
I feel especially bad for theseniors.
They arrived in Annapolis atthe height of the pandemic and
stuck it out for all four years.
It would have been great tosend them off with one more win
over Army, but that's just theway things go sometimes.
My hope is that the players whoare returning can use this
experience to get the team backto at least seven wins next year
(03:53):
.
Okay, that's all the time I'mgoing to spend on football.
The Mids weren't able to pick upthe star there, but there was
some great news to share withrespect to swimming and diving.
Both the men and the women beatArmy last week.
Now, it wasn't as easy as itmight have been in years past,
but as a competitor, I justthink having a few tough
contests during the course of aseason keeps athletes sharp, and
(04:13):
these two meets were a battlefor both squads.
Actually, though, the pointdifferential for the women was
closer than it's been since2000,.
I just didn't see the BlackKnights breaking that 34-year
losing streak to the Mids, andthe big reason was they were
going up against too much depthin some key races.
This was especially true in therelay events.
The Mids finished 1, 2, 3, 5 inthe 200-yard medley relay and 1
(04:34):
, 3, and 4 in the 400-yardfreestyle relay, to grab the
majority of the points in thosetwo races.
Still, the score was tightthrough 18 events.
And then Senior Gabi Baldwinwent into the water for the
200-yard backstroke.
Less than two minutes later shegot her hand on the wall first
and the Mids had the breathingroom they needed.
They held off the Black Knightsthe rest of the way, needing
only one of the five teams theyentered to finish the 400
(04:55):
freestyle relay to seal the winand grab the star.
And, as I mentioned earlier,they took three of the top four
spots, making the final score162-138.
So the Navy women swimming indiving streak against Army is
intact at 35 wins and counting.
Now, the outcome of the men'smeet was in doubt until the last
couple of events.
Things went back and forthuntil about the 200-yard
(05:17):
breaststroke, and that's whenNavy's Juan Mora who was, by the
way, a freshman competing inhis first Army meet swam a
career-best 154-53 to give theteam the momentum it needed.
The divers also played a hugerole by finishing 1, 2, and 4 in
the 3-meter springboard, andthey took the top three spots in
the 1-meter event as well.
There, blake Shaw was firstfollowed by Finnean Gelbach and
(05:38):
then George Moore.
That put the Mids in a positionwhere they only needed to
finish 2nd and 4th in the400-yard freestyle relay to get
the star, and they ended upgoing 2, 3, and 1 by final score
of 154-147.
So congratulations to both themen and the women on a couple of
hard-fought wins there.
And despite the outcome of thefootball game, the Mids are now
just one win behind the BlackKnights in the star competition,
(05:59):
which is fairly typical forthis time of the year.
The winter sports season islooking very competitive as well
, and now everyone's focus willshift to February, where there
will be seven stars on the line.
That month this year, becauseof the good start that Army got
off to, is going to beespecially tight.
The next step going forward isgoing to be really critical
(06:19):
getting to that magic number of13.
One of those big wins the Midsare looking to pick up is in
wrestling.
So I think this is a good timeto see how things are going with
Cary Kolat and and the rest ofthe team.
Now, in case you missed it, theMids are now ranked 17th in the
country following a couple ofbig early season wins against
Illinois and Pittsburgh, and infact they are currently 5-0 in
dual meets.
In their latest contest againstOhio, the team ran off five
(06:41):
straight victories and overcamea 6-0 deficit to win by a score
of 27-12.
Andrew Serniglia wrestled forthe first time in a month and he
came from behind to secure a7-5 win to get the Mids on the
board and cut into that earlyBobcat lead.
His classmate and team captain,grady Grease, was dominant in
his match, earning a majordecision by an 11-2 score.
Coach Colott noted in anearlier interview that the
(07:03):
team's depth is a real strengththis year and that could be a
real difference maker in acouple of months when Army comes
to Annapolis on February, the16th.
Okay, that's going to take careof our sports update and our
Deep Dive segment is coming upnext.
Alright, our Deep Dive segmenttoday is going to focus on the
(07:34):
changing landscape in collegefootball and specifically how it
might affect Navy and the otherservice academies.
But before we get going, I'dlike to thank my classmate, Doug
Conkey, for sending me severalof the questions that I use to
create this content.
Doug and I talk frequently viamessenger about Navy sports,
mostly football, but we'vediscussed others, including
basketball and lacrosse.
Anyway, Doug and I werechatting this past weekend about
(07:55):
a number of things related tocollege football, and the first
topic he raised was how thescheduling of the Army-Navy game
potentially impacts bowleligibility.
I think everyone who followscollege football knows that six
wins is typically what'srequired to qualify for a bowl
invitation.
Of those six, at least fivehave to be against an FBS
opponent.
So, in other words, teams cancount one win against an FCS
(08:15):
program, but not two, and that'sactually what got Army last
year.
They did end up with six wins,but only four were against an
FBS team.
So from a bowl qualifyingperspective, it didn't even
matter that they got that lastwin over the mids, they spent
the postseason at home.
Now it turns out that bowlinvitations usually go out right
after the conferencechampionship games, and that's
the first Saturday in December.
The Army-Navy game is played onthe second Saturday, and it's
(08:38):
been that way since 2009.
One big reason this change wasmade was to give the game its
own national stage.
Army Navy is the last collegefootball game played before the
bull season begins.
The conference champions havealready been decided and the
whole country can tune intoAmerica's game with no others to
worry about.
The one drawback is that by thetime the bullbits go out, both
Army and Navy will have onlyplayed 11 games.
(08:58):
So one legitimate question iswhat happens in a situation like
this season if either teampicks up their sixth win in this
rivalry game, it being the lastone of the year?
And furthermore, does itwarrant moving the Army Navy
game to an earlier date?
So the result isn't the booksbefore the bids go out.
I'll answer the last questionfirst.
Moving the date of the gameisn't necessary, at least the
way I see it, and here's why.
If you look at all the seasonsthe Mids have qualified for a
(09:21):
bull game since 2002, theypicked up that sixth win to
become bull eligible beforetheir 11th game every time
except 2014.
They beat South Alabama onNovember 28th of that year to
get to 6 and 5.
And that earned them aninvitation to the Poinsettia.
Bull Navy had an agreement toplay in that bull game if they
qualified.
That year and every otherseason the Mids played in a bull
game.
They picked up their sixth winwith a couple games to spare.
(09:42):
And if you're wondering abouttheir earliest date that they
qualified, that would be in 2004when they beat Rice on October
23rd to go to 6 and 1.
They later went on to defeatNew Mexico in the Emerald Bowl
30-19.
So I don't think moving thegame is necessary based on this
past history.
Besides, there isn't anotherdate available where Army Navy
would enjoy the same exclusivity.
We already know that the firstSaturday in December wraps up
(10:06):
Championship Week and even ifyou could schedule it on the
Sunday, going up against the NFLwould be rating suicide.
So I definitely prefer keepingthe Army Navy game on the second
Saturday in December.
Now that brings me around to thefirst question what happens
when the Mids or the BlackKnights get that sixth win in
the twelfth game of the year.
Truthfully, the short answer isnothing.
(10:27):
Remember that magic number ofsix only makes them eligible to
get invited to a bull game.
There's nothing automatic aboutit.
Now it is possible for aparticular bull committee to
have an agreement with the team.
Navy has done that more thanonce, with the most recent time
being with the Military andArmed Forces bull committees.
In a situation like that, ifthey didn't get that sixth win,
the committee would likely havea backup team in mind to fill
(10:48):
that spot.
Personally, it wouldn't botherme if the Mids didn't go to a
bull game in this situation.
I get the fact that they'dmissed out on some bull dollars
and that revenue is important tothe athletic program because it
can be spread across alldifferent sports.
But from a competitorstandpoint a team really should
have a winning record going intothat twelfth game to remove all
doubt when it comes to bulleligibility.
That's been the case for thepast 20 years for the Mids and I
(11:11):
don't see any reason for thatto change.
So in a case like this year,where the team needs that sixth
win in that last game to breakeven on the year, I'm okay with
them not going to a bull game,the extra revenue aside, a win
over Army still has some prettysignificant value from a
recruiting perspective.
The other topic that came upwhen Doug and I were exchanging
messages last week was how muchof an impact the transfer portal
(11:32):
is having on the college game.
All I can say is welcome tocollege free agency folks and at
the service academies.
That door only opens in onedirection.
In fact, my brother and I weretalking about this last weekend.
It seems like when theannouncers called out a player's
name after he made a play closeto half the time, it was
followed by the transfer from,you know, an insert school name
(11:53):
here.
It's pretty crazy stuff whenyou think about it.
I don't have any problem withthe athletes entering the portal
in an attempt to go withanother program.
They really should have thesame freedom as the coaches do.
But the thing that concerns meis making sure that they do it
for the right reasons.
For every Jalen Hertz and CalebWilliams, there are dozens of
players who entered the portaland wind up no better off or
(12:13):
even worse than they were before.
Those are the ones I worryabout.
Let me explain by brieflyrecapping the two success
stories.
Jalen Hertz was an outstandingquarterback at Alabama.
He was just a victim of somereally bad timing.
Hertz led the Crimson Tide toback-to-back national
championship games in 2016 and2017.
Unfortunately, they lost toClemson in 2016.
(12:35):
And the next year Hertz did getsome payback by beating the
Tigers in the college footballplayoffs semifinal, but he got
off to a rough start in thenational championship game that
year.
Coach Nick Saban made a changeafter half time and ended up
going with a very talentedfreshman by the name of Tua
Tagovai Loa.
Alabama ended up winning thatgame, beating the University of
Georgia in overtime.
(12:55):
Hertz played one more year inTuscaloosa before transferring
to Oklahoma for the 2019 season,and he had an outstanding
senior year, leading the Soonersback to the CFP semifinal when
many thought they wouldn't makeit back after Kyle and Murray
went to the NFL.
So for Jalen Hurtz, the transferportal was a pretty good move.
That senior season at Oklahomagot him drafted by the
Philadelphia Eagles and now he'sone of the league's top
(13:17):
quarterbacks.
Shortly after Jalen Hertz movedon to the pros, coach Lincoln
Riley recruited Caleb Williamsto come to play for him in
Norman.
But when the coach took theposition at the University of
Southern California, williamsentered the transfer portal and
followed him there.
That made perfect sense to me,of course.
He ended up winning a HeismanTrophy last year and, despite
having a bit of an off year thisseason, he'll probably still go
(13:39):
pretty high in the draft,assuming he turns pro.
So those are what I wouldconsider two transfer portal
success stories, but it doesn'talways work out that well for
everyone.
Now, technically, an athlete canonly enter the transfer portal
once, at least for right now.
There actually might be achange to that coming.
The second time would be ifthey decide to go to graduate
school, still have someeligibility left and want to
(13:59):
continue their college careerwherever they get their graduate
degree.
There are also waivers that canbe granted on a case-by-case
basis.
I imagine there are a lot ofthese being granted during the
pandemic, but I'm thinking theymay be occurring a little less
frequently now.
My main concern is that theathletes who are thinking about
entering the transfer portal aregoing into it with their eyes
wide open.
Do they have the right peopleadvising them?
Have they looked at thesituation from all angles?
(14:22):
If they're a scholarshipathlete, how's that going to be
affected?
Or is this just a knee-jerkreaction to a situation they can
overcome with a little bit morematurity.
Those are all importantquestions.
Now here's a guy I thoughtshould have never entered the
transfer portal, and the namemay surprise you.
It's Sam Hartman, whotransferred from Wake Forest to
Notre Dame after the 2022 season.
This year with the Irish washis sixth year playing college
(14:45):
football and he's 24 years oldNow.
I do want to clarify here thatI'm speaking strictly from the
position of Hartman's earningspotential as a pro quarterback.
There are also some factorsinvolving name, image and
likeness that drove his decision, and I get that.
Maybe you can't blame him forgrabbing the money while he can.
And, by the way, having astrong NIL infrastructure is
(15:05):
going to be a really valuablerecruiting tool for athletic
programs moving forward.
I'm just wondering if the oneat Wake Forest had that much
less to offer compared to NotreDame's.
Anyway, let's stick to thefootball discussion here.
In his two previous seasons atWinston-Salem, hartman led the
Demon Deacons to an outstanding11-3 record, including a bowl
win.
They followed that up in 2022by going 8-5, defeating a tough
(15:27):
Missouri team in their bowl gamethat season.
Hartman racked up some prettyimpressive numbers during that
time and I'm sure the pro scoutswere watching him closely.
Then he decides to enter theportal and wound up landing in
South Bend.
My guess is that othersconvinced him that it would be
good for his career.
Notre Dame was still a bigbrand name in college football
and he would be on national TVjust about every week.
Finally, he probably thought itwas a chance to compete for a
(15:51):
national championship, though,given how Notre Dame stacked up
against the top half dozen teams, I personally didn't see that
happening.
It turns out things didn't go asplanned.
Notre Dame finished at 9-3, andthey never really threatened to
crack the top 5.
I think the closest they gotwas number 9.
The Irish merely won the gamesthey were supposed to win with
Hartman under center.
Now, if they had beaten OhioState, that would have been
(16:11):
something.
But the Buckeye defense heldHartman to just 175 passing
yards, which was 50 yards belowhis average of 225, and the
Irish lost in the final secondsof the game.
In the loss to Louisville, hegot picked off three times and
finally, in Notre Dame's thirdset back against Clemson, the
Tigers defense really shut himdown.
Hartman was just 13 or 30 for146 yards.
(16:32):
He didn't throw a touchdownpass and he was intercepted
twice.
The Irish finished the seasonranked number 16 in the country,
and I thought that was prettygenerous considering they had
three losses.
My point is, if the goal was toimprove his draft stock, Hartman
would have probably been betteroff staying at Wake Forest.
The NIL dollars up front wassomething he had to look at, but
I wonder how that stacks upagainst a rookie contract for a
(16:53):
first round NFL draft pick atquarterback.
Hartman was a much moreprolific passer at Wake Forest,
so staying in that system andadding to the numbers certainly
couldn't have hurt.
Mzir at Notre Dame had itsmoments, but his touchdown
passes dropped by over 36%.
He went from 38 down to 24, andhe had 79 fewer completions on
(17:13):
127 fewer attempts.
There was no improvement tospeak of in Hartman's game and
by transferring he may have verywell cost himself a first round
NFL contract where the money issignificantly better.
Here's another interesting factas of today, there are over 100
quarterbacks in the transferportal.
About 100 players, 100quarterbacks.
Now think about the dominoeffect this can have on certain
(17:36):
programs.
How much impact does chasing aplayer in the portal have on
developing the athletes who arealready in your program?
I'd be curious to know whatstrategies these top tier
programs have in place forrecruiting and developing high
school athletes versus the useof the portal.
My gut tells me thatmaintaining a solid recruiting
pipeline to quality high schoolprograms remains the path to
long term success, but I couldbe wrong, I guess, at this point
(17:57):
.
Only time will tell.
By the way, I do want to raiseone more issue before wrapping
up this discussion on thetransfer portal, and that is how
all these changes affect Navy'sability to stay relevant, or
Army or Air Force for thatmatter.
I think, because of the type ofplayer Navy coaches are looking
for, it won't have a hugeimpact.
Now don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying it doesn't hurtto lose a linebacker like Chad
(18:19):
Hodges, who wound up a starterat TCU after he entered the
portal in 2021.
The fact is, the team willalways have a small number of
players who exceed expectationsin their development.
That, coupled with the factthat maybe they wanted to play
Division 1 football more thanthey wanted to be a Navy or
Marine Corps officer, meant thatgoing into the portal was the
right move for them.
Mikhail Hayward is another goodexample.
(18:39):
He's at Appalachian State nowand doing pretty well, but I
think most football players whodecide to go to Navy understand
the value proposition.
They are very talented threeand potentially four star
athletes who want to be part ofsomething bigger first, but
still want to compete infootball at the Division 1 level
.
The Naval Academy gives them achance to do just that.
So, despite the transfer portaland some of the rule changes
(18:59):
that limited the effectivenessof the triple option, I really
believe that Navy and the othersurface academies can still have
a seat at the table.
It's all about adapting and itdoesn't hurt to have their
proper perspective either.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation Group Facebook
(19:20):
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio, it
doesn't matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
(19:42):
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
We'll be right back.
Okay, thanks for staying withus on Navy Sports Central.
(20:09):
Karl Darden here with you, andI'd like to take a few minutes
in part two of our deep divesegment to discuss how the
College Football PlayoffSelection Committee really
messed up the final rankingsfollowing Championship Week.
At least in my mind they did.
The reason I say this isbecause the committee's decision
didn't necessarily focus on howall the teams performed on the
field, and the team that gotleft out was penalized for how
(20:31):
the committee thought they weregoing to play moving forward,
and as far as I'm concerned,they had no business doing that.
The key driver for all thecommittee's decisions is money,
and that shouldn't come as ashock to anyone.
They make their selectionsbased on the matchups they think
will generate the most revenue.
Now, the committee has oftenlisted the different factors
that figure into the finalrankings, which eventually
determine College Football'snational champion.
(20:52):
Strength of schedule is one youhear quite a bit, although
Georgia would have qualified forthe playoff with a ranking of
45 had they beaten Alabama inthe SEC championship.
So I guess I'd say that thecommittee is fairly flexible on
that metric, going undefeatedchecks in other box.
The committee also made a pointof saying that a team that wins
their conference championshipreally puts themselves in a good
position to qualify.
(21:12):
So it would stand to reasonthat if a team was an undefeated
conference champion, it wouldbe extremely tough to keep them
out of the playoff withoutlosing a boatload of credibility
.
And then, finally, there's thatall-important and supremely
objective eye test, which is aterm so vague that it could mean
just about anything, dependingon the team in question.
So, coming out of championshipweek, you had the following
Power Five Conference champions.
(21:33):
First there was Washington.
They were ranked third goinginto the Pac-12 championship
game against number five rankedOregon, and they won a very
close game, 34-31 to finish theregular season.
Undefeated Michigan easilydefeated Iowa 26-0 to win the
Big 10 title.
They finished with a cleanslate as well.
Next year had Texas beat an18th ranked Oklahoma State to
clinch the Big 12.
The Longhorns did lose the gameto 12th ranked Oklahoma and
(21:56):
their best win was over Alabamain week two, but, as we saw,
that was a much different team.
At the end of the year, theCrimson title overcame a slow
start to qualify for the SECchampionship and they managed to
knock off previously undefeatedand number one ranked Georgia.
Coach Sabin's team finished12-1 to make their case for the
playoff.
Finally, florida State wentinto the ACC championship
without a loss and without theirnumber one quarterback.
(22:17):
Their defense dominated a 15thranked Louisville team that
averaged 31 points a game.
The Seminoles kept theCardinals out of the red zone on
all but two occasions and eventhen the result was just a
couple of field goals.
The final score was 16-6.
So, based on these outcomes, Ifigured Michigan and Washington
were deadlocks at number one andnumber two, since Georgia had
lost.
That left Alabama ranked eighthgoing into the SEC championship
(22:38):
.
Next was Florida State, who wasranked fourth going into theirs
, and Texas was right behindthem at number five.
Now, keep in mind that of theseconference champions, only
Florida State was undefeated andthe Louisville team they beat
was ranked higher than OklahomaState.
I thought the committee wouldprobably go with Florida State
and Texas at numbers three andfour, based on the fact that
Georgia would likely slide outof the top four, which would
move the Seminoles and Longhornsup one spot each.
(23:00):
That would tick off a lot ofAlabama fans, since the Crimson
Tide beat a team in Georgia thathad been number one ranked and
undefeated.
There's also never been aconference champion that was
left out of the playoffs.
Unfortunately there was nogetting around that this year
because the remaining threeteams all were conference
champions.
So I figured okay, I can livewith Alabama leapfrogging Texas
because they beat number oneranked Georgia.
(23:20):
So I was pretty amazed when thefinal rankings came out, with
Texas moving to number three andAlabama to number four.
That left Florida State theonly undefeated team of the
three, on the outside looking in.
But what was even moreincredible was hearing what the
committee chairman, Boo Corrigan, said to defend the decision.
He said that quote FloridaState was just not the same team
unquote after their quarterback, jordan Travis, suffered a
(23:43):
broken leg in the 11th gameagainst North Alabama.
So basically he was saying youknow we didn't choose FSU
because we don't think they'regoing to be able to compete on
account of their number onequarterback being out.
We don't care what they did onthe field up to this point and
I'm sorry, but what a littlecrap.
That was because nine years ago, in 2014, ohio State lost their
first and second stringquarterback going into the Big
(24:05):
Ten championship.
They ended up rolling Wisconsinwith Cardale Jones under center
, who was the number three guy.
The committee slotted them atnumber four.
Then the book guys knocked offtop ranked Alabama and number
two Oregon the win the nationaltitle.
So there is a precedent herefor the committee selecting a
team with an injured firststring quarterback.
That time they did the rightthing.
Sure, ohio State's top two QBswere out of commission, but the
(24:25):
book guys had earned theirticket to the playoff on the
strength of how they played allyear and, by the way, they did
have one loss that season.
This time, though, the committeetotally blew it, and all of Boo
Corrigan's hot air about FSUnot being the same team without
Jordan Travis should not havebeen a factor.
That didn't matter nine yearsago, and it shouldn't have
mattered two weeks ago.
What the committee completelyignored was how good Florida
State was overall.
(24:46):
They put a monster defense onthe field pretty much all season
long.
It was ranked higher than theLonghorns in both team defense
and scoring defense.
In fact, the Seminoles wereranked sixth in that metric.
Corrigan's statement was atotal slap in the face to
everyone on the Florida Stateteam.
When the team went down, thedefense knew they had to step up
and they did just that.
But the committee basicallyjust gave them the finger by
dropping them out of the topfour in favor of Texas, even
(25:08):
though the Seminoles beat ahigher ranked team in their
championship game, had a betterdefense and were ranked higher
in scoring offense.
The bottom line is teams shouldnot be penalized in their
rankings because of an injuryuntil that team shows they
couldn't overcome it.
The fact is that Corrigan andthe committee had no freaking
idea how Florida State wouldhave performed in the semifinal
game.
They should have just let thematter be decided on.
Feel like it was in 2014.
(25:28):
We'll be back shortly.
Okay, we are making the finalturn and heading down the home
(25:49):
stretch, and it is time for ourquestion of the day.
Our last one was two episodesago, when we featured the
women's rowing team, and here'sa question.
The women's rowing team had twovarsity eight crews inducted
into the Navy Sports Hall ofFame.
They were from the 1v8 boats inboth 1992 and 1994.
How many individual rowers fromthe program have earned that
(26:09):
distinction since 1980?
Is it A8, b11, c14, or D18?
It looks like the most popularanswer was D18.
50% of those who respondedchose that one.
Next was B11.
There were 37% of you whoselected it, and then there were
(26:30):
12% that thought C14 was thecorrect choice.
No one picked A, which was A8.
It turns out that the rightanswer was B.
There have been 11 individualrowers from the Navy women's
team that are in the Hall ofFame.
The first to earn that honorwas Lori Coffey from the class
of 1999, and the most recent onewas Darby Nelson from the class
of 2016.
I'll go ahead and list theother Hall of Famers than the
show notes and, by the way, youcan bet that Alexandria
(26:52):
Valancey- Martinson and LaurenDay will be joining them in the
future.
Okay, now here's our questionfrom this episode.
In 2019, roughly 6% of Division1 college football rosters were
made up of players from thetransfer portal.
What was that percentage duringthe 2023 football season?
Was it A, 21%, b, 26%, c, 29%or D, 32%?
(27:14):
And just so you know, theseanswers are all rounded up to
the nearest whole number, sotake some time to think about
your response and when you'vegot one, just go to the Navy
Sports Nation group Facebookpage and make your choice there.
I'll have that question up bythe end of the day.
Now let's go ahead and finish upwith our last midwatch segment
of the fall sports season.
We're going to start withKiefer Black first and, as you
may recall, he is a freshman onthe water polo team.
(27:35):
Black just capped off a prettyamazing year.
The Mids made it all the way tothe Mid-Atlantic Water Polo
Conference Championship gamebefore dropping a very close
contest at 15th ranked 40thUniversity.
The final score was 12 to 10.
But Black was named the rookieof the tournament.
He led the team with four goalsand for the year he finished
with 68 goals and 57 assists andthat gave him a total of 125
(27:57):
points overall.
That ranks as the third mostever in the history of the
program for one season.
And remember, black still hasthree years left to play and
somehow I don't think that thisis the last championship the
Mids will compete for while he'sat Annapolis.
Next we've got Averi Miller,the senior setter from the
volleyball team.
Now you all may remember thatour last podcast episode was a
little special in that wefocused solely on the women's
(28:18):
triathlon team at the nationalchampionships.
That very same day, which wasNovember 11th, the Mids took on
Army in volleyball at the Wesley, a Brown field house with the
star on the line, and it was onethe Mids really needed because
the Black Knights had gottenafter a pretty good start in the
overall series.
Now the match did not startvery well.
Army took the first two sets bya fairly comfortable margin.
The scores were 25-16 and 25-18.
(28:40):
So now the team was in a reallytough spot.
There was absolutely no roomfor error as the Mids tried to
extend the match.
And then in the third set theyfound their rhythm, with Miller
setting up her outside hittersJordan and Jamie Llewellyn.
They fought their way back andtook the third and fourth sets
by identical 25-20 scores.
Now, for those of you who maynot know, the fifth and deciding
set is played to 15 points.
(29:00):
So everyone is that much moreimportant.
I mean you just can't afford togive a point away.
Navy got out early, but Armycame back to tie the score
already 11.
The Mids then won three of thenext four points to make it
14-12.
And by this time the fieldhouse was going absolutely
berserk.
Avery Miller was having herusual solid match she had dealt
out 38 assists and come up with18 digs to lead the team in both
(29:21):
of those statistical categories.
But remember, at 6-1.
Miller also poses an offensivethreat and at this point in the
match she had three kills aswell.
That gave her 199 for hercareer.
Her 200th was one she'll neverforget, taking a back set from
freshman Arlie Hansen.
Miller approached from theright sideline and unleashed a
thunderbolt that tore rightthrough the hands of two Army
(29:41):
blockers and hit the floor formatch point and the place just
exploded.
The Mids completed the mostunlikely of comebacks, and I say
that because the final numbershowed that Army led in just
about every statistic, exceptfor aces.
Navy had a 5-3 edge there.
So that basically tells you howwell the Black Knights played
in the first two sets.
But as we all know, it's nothow you start, it's how you
finish, and both Averi Millerand the Navy volleyball team
(30:03):
showed that terrific route atWest Brown.
Just how it's done, and onVeterans Day no less.
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcast and remember to get
the word to all the other Navyfans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankmy classmate, doug Conkey, for
(30:25):
providing the questions that Iused to develop the content for
this episode's deep dive segment.
And, by the way, you guys canfeel free to do that anytime you
like.
You'll always get a mention onthe show, and I think it's a
really good way for us to stayconnected.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
Group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
(30:46):
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to you
courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
(31:06):
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy Beat Army.
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