The Academy Loses Its Way – Again

By John R. “Buck” Surdu

This week ESPN reported that Army football player Andre Carter II was poised to be the first Army football player to be drafted in the NFL higher the seventh round in over fifty years. This sparked debate on some of the social media sites for Academy graduates.

“In December, Congress passed a law that’s going to eventually eliminate the opportunity for military academy graduates like Carter to defer service requirements and pursue professional sports. After the rule passed, Carter and others attempting to go pro both this year and next got legacied into the old rule, enacted in 2019, that allows deferment. That leaves officials at Army, Navy and Air Force worried that athletes like Carter with high-end potential will not attend the academies or will transfer out early in their careers.”

It is very rare that I say this: Congress was correct. They were correct in changing the rule to prevent deferment. Defending the notion that football players (and presumably other potential professional athletes should be allowed deferments, ESPN quoted Air Force coach Troy Calhoun,

“Why do we want to repel people who want to serve? They want an opportunity in that short, short window that’s available to make the most of their gifts and talents. Well, let’s be forward thinking here. If not, then we don’t attract the best, because we’re putting up roadblocks.”

In support of deferment, many Academy graduates argue that the Army grants short deferments for Rhodes scholars and other similar awards. Academy graduates on occasion get deferments to attend medical or law school. One person asserted that the average professional football career is approximately four years, plenty of time for service in the military afterward. Do we have any examples of Army or Navy football or basketball players who have subsequently returned to the military as a second lieutenant or ensign? This is a false analogy anyway, as the Army needs scholars, doctors, (and despite my better judgement) lawyers. Even in the Army of Wokeness, the Army does not NEED football or lacrosse players.

Young people go to West Point for a variety of reasons. Omar Bradley went for the free education. Many go to West Point thinking they want a career in the Army but later change their minds. All that is fair, but everyone who attends West Point should know and acknowledge that their first duty to the nation upon graduation is as an officer in the regular army. Yet Army recruits varsity athletes for the public relations value and seems less than honest with candidates about their chances of a professional career.

In some cases, the NFL was allowed to pay back the Academy for the cost of the athlete’s education, but that too is problematic. Letting an athlete out of their obligation is like telling people with degrees in Renaissance literature or anything ending in “studies” that they don’t have to pay back their loan. Where does personal accountability and living up to one’s commitments end? In addition, that athlete took a slot that might have been filled by a candidate who wanted and would have served the nation in uniform. It is loss for the Army, and it unfairly takes an opportunity away from a quality candidate.

Some argue that Army football is a recruiting tool. I assert that if the Army football team is enticing young people to apply to West Point that we are attracting the wrong candidates. We should be enticing those with the aptitude for military service, instead of attracting the best lacrosse players. While that focus would result in Army’s inability to compete with top tier schools that in no way negatively impacts any part of the mission of the Academy. But enticing candidates because of the professional sports prospects does negatively impact the mission of the Academy. Army needs to stop trying to compete with schools where football is a business, where athletes are really professionals with different compensation plans, and where academics take a back seat to sports. It would be better to compete with other second-tier schools and focus on West Point’s mission: to educate, train, and inspire cadets to service to the nation as officers in the regular army. West Point should stop trying to compete for candidates with Harvard, Yale, and other Ivy League schools. We have enough (perhaps too many) of those. West Point should be first and last a trade school for young officer cadets.

The nation and many parents have lost focus on the goal of youth athletics. They are not about pushing your kid with illusions of a professional sports career. They are about teamwork, sportsmanship, hard work, and perseverance through adversity. Likewise, at West Point varsity cadets are athletes first and cadets as a distance third or fourth. Anyone willing to be honest will have to concede that at today’s West Point, the experience of a varsity athlete is unlike that of “normal cadets.” The concept of every cadet an athlete is still upheld by intramural athletics, but varsity athletes have too many authorizations, “authos,” to avoid normal cadet life, including parades, formations, and other mandatory duties and character-building events. They avoid many of the hardships of Plebe year; they get special tables in the mess hall; and they forego a host of other activities.

I have often asserted that at today’s West Point, everything takes precedence over the Army: wokeness, varsity athletics, DEI, and mandatory COVID vaccinations. Instead of stepping up summer military training as we near another Democrat-create foreign war, cadets frequently attend Ivy League-like academic enrichment programs. Those are all well and good, but why not more miltary and leadership training?! Even our beloved honor code has been mangled beyond recognition for those who attended West Point during the Reagan era and before.

A year ago, 75 varsity lacrosse and football players were caught cheating on an exam at West Point. When this happened in the 1970s, most were kicked out. At Woke Point, the Superintendent, LTC Daryll Williams, set a new, lowered standard by allowing the varsity cadets to remain. No one doubts that any “regular cadets” would have been summarily expelled. Being able to throw a ball appears more important than creating officers with honor, integrity, a duty concept, military skills, and character.

The Free Press recently published an article, entitled “Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm.” The article cites numerous examples in top-tier universities where cheating has become normalized. The article is worth reading if you want to be really depressed about the future of the nation. Clearly the integrity of the candidate pool will reflect the moribund moral standards of American society at large, but I once thought that West Point held itself and its graduates to a higher standard than “regular schools.” That no longer seems true.

Alumni of West Point, “Old Grads,” are often accused of complaining that West Point has gotten easier or the standards have been lowered to unacceptable levels. I experienced West Point as a cadet, as a member of the faculty, and as a parent. I think I can honestly say that today’s West Point no longer reflects the values, virtues, or rigor of the institution I attended.