Saturday at Yankee Stadium, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish (ranked No. 6 before the game) Army’s Black Knights (No. 18) played in one of the great rivalries in college football. Once known as ‘The Game’, the teams’ first meeting in 1913 featured the forward pass modernized the sport (a stunning 35-13 victory for the Irish, with future legend Knute Rockne catch a 40-yard touchdown pass for Notre Dame’s first score).
More than a century later, this year’s game was special in its own way: It’s the only moment this season when Americans could see both the worst and what’s left of the best in major college football on one field.
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The rivalry between the Army and Notre Dame writes its own storylines: the Pope’s boys versus the Doughboys, religion and the army, the cross versus the sabre. Both schools are rooted in moral principles and both reach for higher callings.
Or at least they once did.
The unlimited money that has flowed into college football since the NCAA changed its policy in 2021 to allow college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (“NIL”) has sent the two teams in different directions. While federal law prohibits the military service academies (West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy) from participating in endorsements, Notre Dame has thrown in its lot with the rest of college football by becoming one of the top NIL collectives in the country have become so successful as non-profit organizations recently announced plans to make a profit. That means when Army lines up against Notre Dame, the Fighting Irish roster will have been bought and paid for with millions of dollars. The quarterback alone, who was lured away from Duke this past season, cost one cool mil.
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So much for moral principles: the team now represents capitalism, not Catholicism. And what did Notre Dame sell its soul for? Up a few spots in the national polls?
It is through schools like Notre Dame – which claim a conscience – where we really see corruptio optimi pessima (the corruption of the best is the worst of all). Name, image and likeness matches are ruining college football by salami-slicing away at the integrity of the game on several levels. They separate the haves from the have-nots with astonishing pay imbalances that we wouldn’t allow even in the smallest leagues. The central role of money in the NIL era separates teams from regions and rivalries – no more Oklahoma-Oklahoma state gameno more Oregon-Oregon state gameno more Stanford-USC game. The pursuit of cash has destroyed traditional conferences like the Pac-10.
But most of all, this new market-driven approach to college sports separates students from student-athletes. In this era, there is almost no connection between athletes and their schools, with tornado-level turnover every season. The endorsement-fueled transfer portal has turned college football coaching into a cross between speed dating and a pick-up game. It’s like trying to do leadership in a washing machine. Coaches literally buy time-bound “loyalty” with it car dealer dollars. Some – like Shedeur Sanders from Colorado (season price tag: $6.2 million) – barely bothered to come to class in person (although, to be fair, he did get around to it in his third semester on campus). College football players have become freelancers.
But here’s the thing. We already have the National Football League. College football was never meant to be about the raw quality of the game. It was always about the traditions, the rivalries, the teams. The military still has a team. Most colleges don’t do that: they have a rotating cast of free agents. So if even a school like Notre Dame has run Rudy off the field, what’s left? A junior varsity NFL. I think fans will soon lose interest because what’s left to love?
This is not a nostalgia argument about the good old days. College players need to be paid for their difficult, dangerous work. They should get a share of the revenue if their work generates tens and hundreds of millions of dollars for colleges and coaches who don’t take any physical risks. Footballers have to be paid somehow. But not like that.
The current system is the worst possible way, with no reasonable guardrails, and it destroys what was once good about the game. The NCAA, led by former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker Jr., is advocating for one proposal to get past the ‘dysfunction’ of the current system. Here’s the worst problem: way beyond football, the NCAA includes 97 conferences, 11,000 schools and 500,000 student athletes. Baker needs allies to navigate these complexities. He needs Congress to establish some national legal guidelines.
Most of all, Baker needs help from schools like Notre Dame. Schools that, in theory, are concerned with deadly sins like pride, greed and envy – the engines of the market for name, image and likeness. Schools that want to phase out this business are working with the devil, even if they benefit from it. Notre Dame once modernized college football, against Army, and can move the game forward again by passing legislation.
Given the context, Army-Notre Dame’s score almost doesn’t matter. Because sometimes it’s really about how you play the game.
M. L. Cavanaugh is a West Point graduate, former college athlete and author of the forthcoming book “Best Scar Wins: How You Can Be More Than You Were Before.” @MLCavanaugh
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
