At the Commander in Chief trophy presentation, Trump says he wants change DOD rules to allow military academy athletes to defer their active-duty service until after a professional career.

{from wire services}

The current rules have made it difficult for the service academies to field quality athletes for their football teams.

So what happens when one of those "athletes" gets banged up playing professional sports and can no longer meet his military obligations?

Of course, they will have pocketed millions so they will not have to worry about that. And the taxpayers will have paid for the education.

I'm confused. Are the service academies in the business of producing military officers or professional athletes?

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
...

The current rules have made it difficult for the service academies to field quality athletes for their football teams.

I suppose my question is this. Why is this a thing?

I like college football. A LOT! Having said that, I graduated from the smallest Division 1 school in the country at the time. We weren't that good. We got beaten a lot. We as students still had a great time at games, and our athletes graduated from a tough school. A few even went to the pros. Our baseball was much better.

My point is, what's the benefit to the academies to seek out star quality talent? These are future officers who get a chance to play sports. It's not even about scholarships.

You get a high quality free education, you get to pay it back first. Want to go to the pros? You have other priorities and the taxpayers should not be footing the bill.

My guess is that it’ll attract more athletes for some reason?

And btw, I go to the Army v Navy game just about every year. If it wasn’t for all the other cool stuff, it would suck. I’ve seen better high school football games.

quote:

My point is, what's the benefit to the academies to seek out star quality talent? These are future officers who get a chance to play sports. It's not even about scholarships.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Apparently it is about winning more games. The service academies in football compete with some pretty good teams, and some folks are unhappy they are not winning enough.

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:
I'm confused. Are the service academies in the business of producing military officers or professional athletes?

This right here. Nothing much else needs to be said.

the number of athletes this will affect is ridiculously small

and might have the positive effect of 'elevating' very high quality athletes from the academies onto the national stage (pro sports)

athletes who actually CAN be considered role models for youth to emulate

not a big deal IMO

----------------------------

I don't follow college or pro sports. Can anyone answer roughly what percentage of college athletes go pro?

What is the average # of years a pro plays and how many times are they retired due to injury?

It would be reasonable to assume most wouldn't be fulfilling their military obligations due to age and/or injury.

That said, if it affects like 1-2% or less it isn't a big deal. Furthermore, the ones who turn pro could opt to payoff their education costs instead.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:
I'm confused. Are the service academies in the business of producing military officers or professional athletes?

This right here. Nothing much else needs to be said.

Maybe, MAYBE, luring in better athletes will help with recruiting. MAYBE.

If it were up to me, there would be NO recruiting of athletes. Admission would be based on MERIT ONLY, on a cadet's potential to become a good officer in the US military.

I work at USAFA, and I don't care if we ever won a single game against 'real' colleges. We would still face even odds against the Army and Navy (the only team rivalries that most people care about anyway).

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by DennisM:
I'm confused. Are the service academies in the business of producing military officers or professional athletes?

This right here. Nothing much else needs to be said.

Yep, this sums it up nicely. If a gifted high school athlete decides to go to a military academy it's not about a possibility of becoming a pro athlete, it's about serving your country and getting a first class education in the process. If you want to make a career as a pro do it like Roger Staubach did and wait till you've served your obligation to your contract to the taxpayers and country.

Jim

The number of athletes who enter college with the hopes of a professional career are much higher than those who leave college with one. The rules against athletes becoming professionals after graduating the academy likely deter a lot more pro hopefuls than they ever will retain legit pro prospects.

They stand to gain more applicants and elevate their athletic programs while they risk losing a very small number of graduates.

What would Pat Tillman's opinion of this be I wonder.

And I agree with others that military Academies exist to train future military officers. That is their mission.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:


And I agree with others that military Academies exist to train future military officers. That is their mission.

Which they can and will continue to do. But before they can train then they have to get them there in the first place. This will allow them a larger pool of willing applicants.

quote:

Originally posted by Strambo:
I don't follow college or pro sports. Can anyone answer roughly what percentage of college athletes go pro?

What is the average # of years a pro plays and how many times are they retired due to injury?

It would be reasonable to assume most wouldn't be fulfilling their military obligations due to age and/or injury.

That said, if it affects like 1-2% or less it isn't a big deal. Furthermore, the ones who turn pro could opt to payoff their education costs instead.

Less than 2% according to the NCAA. And the majority of those play professional baseball.

Only 1.1% of NCAA men’s basketball players go to the NBA and 1.5% for football players to the NFL. The academies won’t see even that much loss as the best prospects will still go to universities more invested in their sports programs. The average career in the NFL seems to be around 3 years. Even then there are a lot of guys who barely see any playing time. For every Tom Brady there are a couple hundred guys who got picked up by a team and then got dropped before the season started and ended up bouncing around on practice squads for a year or two before being forgotten.

https://www.ncaa.org/sites/def...ct%20Sheet%20WEB.pdf

https://www.google.com/amp/s/a...-years-data-analysis

Honestly, if an athlete from a service academy is good enough to go Pro and wants to, they should allow them to.

The good it does for Service / Academy recruiting and PR far offsets a handful of officers who would simply be looking for the fastest way out to go play pro sports.

Roger Staubach didn't seem to have any problems with the current rules.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
What would Pat Tillman's opinion of this be I wonder.

And I agree with others that military Academies exist to train future military officers. That is their mission.

No shit. And sometimes using a handful of people a year to attract MORE of the best and brightest might actually be the MORE effective use of their time than a couple of more line officers waiting to get off active duty.

And Pat Tillman made a free choice but it's got nothing to do with what we are talking about. Because there are plenty of people here who were free to serve but chose not to. Which in and of itself is fine too.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
If it were up to me, there would be NO recruiting of athletes. Admission would be based on MERIT ONLY, on a cadet's potential to become a good officer in the US military.

Well then they would need to do away from the political nomination system to get an appointment too.

Oh and another thing, don't everyone get their panties in a bunch, thump your chest and say "BUT MY TAX DOLLARS PAY FOR IT ALL", because they don't.

Much like other colleges, the service academies get LOTS of alumni donations for buildings, sports complexes, and other things that keep them running. And just like other colleges, alumni like seeing the students play sports, be it Lax, sailing, or football.

No link? You know the boss' rule.

And, OP's "story" consists of 2 sentences. Come on, man.

quote:

At the Commander in Chief trophy presentation, Trump says he wants change DOD rules to allow military academy athletes to defer their active-duty service until after a professional career.

{from wire services}

The current rules have made it difficult for the service academies to field quality athletes for their football teams.