Two months before the 2015 college football season kicks off, the Navy Midshipmen announced plans for their 2016 meeting with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish: The game will head south to EverBank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. Navy athletics officials and representatives of the Jacksonville Sports Council revealed the site of the Nov. 5, 2016, contest at a Wednesday news conference at the stadium. The council is accepting ticket requests; prices start at $60. It’s a long trek from Annapolis, but the contest serves as a home game of sorts for sailors stationed at Naval Station Mayport, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, and…
Browsing: Carrier Classic
Ten quick hits’ worth of military-related sports news before Congress tries to make all the academy football teams wear the same uniform (non-football news after the jump): 1. Bobsled-bound? Option quarterbacks need to be versatile, but former Army signal-caller Trent Steelman is taking things to a new level. Already under contract with the Baltimore Ravens, Steelman’s now in the running for a spot on the U.S. Olympic bobsled team, according to Army football guru Sal Interdonato. Steelman’s father told Interdonato that the Army officer performed well in the U.S. Bobsled Combine recently and will be participating in further qualifying events…
The men’s college basketball season ends tonight. The two-year experiment of playing college basketball on warships may have ended over the weekend. A report published Saturday by The Florida Times-Union outlines how a mixture of unexpected insurance costs, the downsizing of the proposed host ship from a carrier to an amphib and the on-court condensation that canceled the game at halftime contributed to a $736,000 loss for the city of Jacksonville in staging the Navy/Marine Corps Classic at Naval Station Mayport, an game that was supposed to benefit military charities. In the report, Alan Verlander, Jacksonville’s executive director of sports…
Ten quick hits to recap a busy weekend aboard two decommissioned aircraft carriers and a damp gator. 1. The games that finished: To minimal fanfare and with a relatively dry court, Notre Dame’s women’s team defeated the Ohio State women 57-51 on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown in Charleston, S.C., on Friday afternoon to begin what was supposed to be a four-game weekend shipboard slate. On Sunday in San Diego, the Syracuse men easily dispatched San Diego State 62-49 aboard the decommissioned carrier Yorktown. Between those games, things got interesting. 2. The first washout: The Ohio State and Marquette men…
Five quick hits as a military-themed college basketball weekend closes in. 1. More uniforms: We’ve got shots of Georgetown (facing Florida on the amphibious assault ship Bataan on Friday), Ohio State (facing Marquette on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown on Friday) and Connecticut (facing Michigan State at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Friday) gear at right. All eight schools playing men’s basketball on carriers and on European bases this week are Nike-sponsored, so keep an eye out here for future uniform releases. We had Michigan State gear and a link to an early Florida camo-uni prototype with our now-outdated game…
Are you a fan of early-season college basketball? Of camouflage-themed uniform designs? Of playing basketball on multiple warships, active and decommissioned? Or playing overseas, at odd times, to placate television audiences? If so, this is your lucky week. On Friday, five college hoops games with a military feel will be played in less than eight hours — four games on ships, one game on a base in Germany. Here’s a breakdown of who’s playing who where this Friday: (UPDATE: West Coast game moved to Sunday because of weather concerns) Armed Forces Classic Presented by: Sears Who: No. 14 Michigan State…
The “Battle on the Midway” college basketball game set for Nov. 9 on a decommissioned aircraft carrier in San Diego was supposed to be the centerpiece of a Veterans Day weekend celebration, including a charity concert, a fan fest and a fancy dinner. Now, all of the surrounding events have been canceled, according to a U-T San Diego report, and the game itself could vanish next. The contest between Syracuse and San Diego State, to be held in a 4,000-seat temporary stadium aboard the Midway, is not sold out, according to the report. The U-T says the $1,000-a-seat tickets have…
NBC Sports Network: Your home for basketball on ships. The Navy/Marine Corps Classic, which will feature the Georgetown and Florida men’s basketball teams playing Nov. 9 on the deck of the amphibious assault ship Bataan at Naval Station Mayport, Fla., will air on NBCSN at 9 p.m., GatorSports.com and other Florida-centric websites reported Tuesday. That’ll put the game on the same network as the Carrier Classic doubleheader being held that same day on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Yorktown at Charleston, S.C. In fact, if the network keeps to its Carrier Classic schedule, it’ll be a tripleheader of shipboard action –…
Almost two months away from this year’s Carrier Classic, there are already plans in motion for next year’s. And although recent or planned sports-on-a-ship contests have expanded to include baseball, basketball on amphibs and hockey, next year’s Classic might top them all. According to reports, the 2013 Carrier Classic could involve eight teams in four games emanating from four different ships, including the decommissioned carriers Yorktown (in South Carolina, site of this year’s event) and Midway (in San Diego, site of a competing event). Possible teams include Texas, Gonzaga, N.C. State, Missouri, Florida State and Davidson. The original report included…
Naval Station Mayport, Fla., has been without a carrier to call its own since 2007. Local leaders have asked the Navy repeatedly for another flattop, a move that would involve millions of dollars’ worth of construction to make Mayport capable of hosting a nuclear-powered vessel and would add millions more to the area economy. So far, they’ve had no luck. When the Navy and the city of Jacksonville announced last month that the Georgetown and Florida men’s basketball teams would square off on a ship for the inaugural Navy/Marine Corps Classic, it was assumed a carrier would be brought down…
