Army West Point Athletics
Ask the AD - September 18, 2006
September 18, 2006 | General
Rich DeMarco: Hello again everyone, Rich DeMarco back for another edition of Ask the AD, your chance to ask questions of Army Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson, and have Kevin Anderson answer your questions about the Army athletic department. Just a reminder about how it works. You can log on to the official web site of Army athletics, www.goARMYsports.com, click on the Ask the AD button, submit your question for Kevin Anderson there, and then periodically, we will post a show, Ask the AD, where Kevin Anderson will answer your questions about the Army athletic department.
Well let’s start off this show by thanking our listeners for their patience throughout the last couple of months as Army has made a transition in web site providers. Army is now partnered with XOS Technologies, and Kevin, you and I are back on Ask the AD, our first show after Army has partnered up with XOS.
Kevin Anderson: Rich, I always enjoy sitting down with you, and I am very excited about our new upgraded web site. XOS is an excellent partner and this will allow us to better serve our fans. We believe you will really enjoy the upgraded web site.
RD: Kevin, big news coming from West Point a couple of weeks ago and that is the Army football team partnering with the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. If the Army football team wins six games this 2006 season, and is bowl eligible, they will be playing in that game in San Diego on Dec. 19. That had to be a big moment with Army being able to close that deal with the Poinsettia Bowl.
KA: Rich, we still have our work cut out for us because we do have to win six football games. But, we are very excited about the partnership with the Poinsettia Bowl. They really want us to come out there, and we really want to be there in December. So, I am looking forward to six wins, if not more, and we’ll be celebrating an early Christmas in San Diego.
RD: We have a lot of questions to get to here on Ask the AD. Let’s get them started right now. We start with Ron Winfield from Milford, Conn. Kevin, his question is about the eligibility issue surrounding Army offensive linemen Pete Bier and Dan Evans for the Arkansas State game. The two seniors were held out of that game, and after an appeal was heard by the NCAA, those two players were reinstated for the Kent State game. If you could explain the series of events that led up to that situation and the eventual resolution.
KA: I’m just happy for Pete and Dan that they’re able to play and they will compete with us all season long. There was question about a rule that pertained to Dan and Pete’s first year at the Academy and playing in a practice against the Prep School. After we read our interpretation, and the NCAA talked to us about how they interpreted it, we came to a conclusion that they are indeed eligible. So, they will be playing with us for the rest of the year. We have really put that aside and now moving forward and looking for Pete and Dan to have a great football season.
RD: Moving on to television coverage of Army football, our next question from Karl Savatiel from Bodega Bay, Calif., and Kevin, Carl’s question has to deal with Army’s television contract with ESPN and finding out which ESPN channel each Army home game will be on and how he can go about seeing the time and channel a game will be on.
KA: Well first, I would like to say to Carl, being from California, I love visiting Bodega Bay and the seafood is great up there, so Carl if I am ever in town, we will go out and have some raw oysters. Getting to the question, Carl, we will be on one of the ESPN channels throughout the season and they will televise all of our home games and most of our games are being televised this year. Right now, we cannot tell you which ESPN channel the game will be on because each week ESPN has the opportunity to have it either on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic or ESPNU. We don’t know the starting times until 12 days out, so if you look at your local newspaper or go to our web site, we will do our best to let you know as early as possible when we will play the games and what time.
RD: Kevin, our next question is from Rick Parisi from Newburgh, N.Y., and Kevin, Rick wants to know if there are any changes in the works for the Army line of athletic logos?
KA: Well Rich, there won’t be any changes but we are going to continue to broaden our look so we will be using both our old logos and our new logos. I know that Nike is looking at having a retro line so you will have available the old “Block A” and also some things with the kicking mule on it. We are going to have a mixture of the old and the new, and we are very excited about what Nike has produced for us. I believe everyone will be very pleased with what comes out in the near future.
RD: Kevin let’s move on to football scheduling questions, and we have a few of them to get to, one from Tony Murphy in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. Kevin, Tony wants to know with Notre Dame back on the schedule for this year, can we come to expect an annual event of Army taking on Notre Dame?
KA: Our series with Notre Dame will not be an annual event, but we are looking at doing two or three games down the road with them. We are very excited about that and so is Notre Dame. So we are trying to come up with a schedule that will see us playing Notre Dame more in the future.
RD: Glenn Steinmetz from Pittsburgh, Pa., wants to know, Kevin, when Army will be playing Pittsburgh and it there is anything in the works to have Army play teams from the BIG EAST Conference?
KA: I don’t see us playing Pittsburgh in the future. We haven’t talked about playing a football game. It’s possible but we have pretty much locked up schedules now through 2012. We are playing some BIG EAST teams. We are playing Rutgers and looking at quite possibly playing Syracuse in the near future. We are looking at playing more regional home games. We will be talking to BIG EAST teams, along with everybody else, because we are America’s team, and we want to play throughout the country and bring the Army football experience to the United States.
RD: Let’s go back out to the West Coast for a question, Eric Jensen, USMA class of ’71, from Portland, Ore., mentions that Army during the 1990’s played two games against the University of Washington in Seattle. Is there any chance Army could be seeing the University of Washington coming up on the schedule?
KA: Earlier on this year, we did talk to the University of Washington. Unfortunately, we couldn’t work out a deal playing them either at home or in Seattle. However, we are talking to the University of Oregon and there is a possibility of playing in Eugene, Ore., in the next couple of years.
RD: Kevin our last question comes from Doris Turner, West Point ’80, from Silver Spring, Md. Kevin, Doris wants to know if there will be a tribute game or a tribute tournament for former Army women’s basketball coach Maggie Dixon, who tragically passed away after the Black Knights magical run to the NCAA Tournament just a few months ago.
KA: In the next couple of weeks Rich, I am looking forward to making the announcement that we will have a Maggie Dixon basketball tournament. The great thing about this is we will be able to celebrate Maggie’s life as a great coach and a great person. The added addition, and we are very excited about this, is that her brother, Jamie, will be bringing his Pitt team to play at the Holleder Center. So, we will have our women’s team playing against Ohio State and the Pittsburgh team playing against Western Michigan. I can’t think of a better way to start off a tournament like this in Maggie’s honor than to have our women playing, but to have her brother also included in this wonderful weekend of basketball.
RD: Kevin, thank you so much for joining me on another edition of Ask the AD. We look forward to our next Ask the AD session. I know you have a message out there for all the Black Knight fans.
KA: Well Rich, I want to thank you for the excellent job you do, but I also want to thank our fans for being patient with us as we updated and upgraded our web site. We really feel that there are bigger and better things to come with our web site and our coverage of Army athletics. We appreciate your support and I will talk to you in a couple weeks.
RD: That is Army Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson. I’m Rich DeMarco on another edition of Ask the AD. Have a good day everyone.
