What's next for the Military Bowl and Sgt. Stripes?

MilitaryBowl.com homepage - the top is after Saturday's Navy loss.

With a 27-24 road loss to San Jose State this past Saturday, Navy (4-7) will miss a bowl for the first time since 2002, former coach Paul Johnson’s first year at the Academy. The Mids will close out the 2011 season at the traditional Army-Navy game on Dec. 10 at Fedex Field in Landover, Md.

While this news is disheartening for Midshipman fans, it’s also a blow for the Military Bowl. As shown in the top image above, the organizers originally had Navy playing an ACC opponent. Now the website has nothing at the top of the page about who will be playing.

Based on the Military Bowl Twitter account, they’re still looking at an ACC squad. But that team (likely N.C. State if they can beat Maryland this weekend) will be facing remains to be decided.

The Washington Post’s Gene Wang examined the Military Bowl’s predicament Tuesday, and from the sounds of things, Navy’s loss has thrown organizers into a scramble.

“The ACC side should become crystal clear after this weekend,” Steve Beck, president and executive director of the Military Bowl, told the Post. “But there’s still the process with the championship game involved and then the selections, so each bowl will be able to choose going down the list. Theoretically if N.C. State wins, we’ll have that final selection.”

As far as Sgt. Stripes goes, we hope he’ll still be providing gameday coverage December 28 at RFK stadium.