Ferd Lewis: Army gets last look at Aloha Stadium

Take a good look at the Army West Point football team come Saturday night, because it is the last we’re going to be seeing of the Black Knights of the Hudson for a long while.

What had been the second game of a four-game series with the University of Hawaii and, potentially a steppingstone to something lengthier, is now, suddenly, down to its last chapter for the foreseeable future, collateral damage in the need for bigger road game paydays.

Which also means after this season UH will be down to playing just one service academy, Air Force, in schedules posted through 2027.

The Falcons are on there because they are a Mountain West Conference member. And even at that, the Falcons will be on the docket only two out of every four years in the current rotation.

That’s too bad, because games against the academies seem to add a little something extra to the schedule. At Aloha Stadium the contests bring out some of the military communities — and not just the ones UH is playing that night.

UH head coach Nick Rolovich delights in having Army or Air Force representatives on the home sideline when playing Navy and, presumably, vice versa come Saturday.

On the road, the academies provide an opportunity for the players and fans to get a glimpse of academy life and a first-hand appreciation for the commitment of the athletes who go there. Plus the obligatory fly-overs and parachute drops are pretty cool.

And, for the most part, last month’s blowout by Air Force excepted, they have been good, competitive games.

Getting Navy back here has been complicated by the Middies playing in a league, the American Athletic Conference, which it joined in 2015, ending 113 years as an independent. Due to the conference affiliation and their participation in the Commander-in-Chief’s Cup with Army and Air Force, and regular games with Notre Dame, that leaves precious few openings and little appetite for across-the-continent trips.

That’s why Army, which had forsaken the conference life after seven years in Conference USA to return to being an independent in 2005, made a lot of sense. Right up until it became a matter of dollars and cents for UH.

UH and Army had been scheduled to play two more times, 2022 at West Point and 2024 at Aloha Stadium.

Boo Corrigan, who was the Army athletic director when the games were set, particularly liked the idea of the Black Knights playing here around Thanksgiving since it meant no loss of class time, allowed a 13th game and also left an open week before the annual Army-Navy game.

But the Black Knights won’t be coming back in 2024, as contracted, because UH won’t be going to West Point in 2022, as contracted.

In order to add a game at Michigan — and a school-record $1.9 million payday — to the schedule in 2022, UH asked out of the trip to Army and the Black Knights wanted out of 2024.

The $1.9 million represents the largest guarantee ever made to UH by $700,000 and a $1.5 million improvement over the $400,000 the ’Bows would have gotten to go to West Point. It is also in line with the addition of stops at Oregon in 2020 for $1 million and UCLA in 2021 for $750,000.

When you’re attracting barely 20,000 (20,246 per game this season) at home and have bills to pay, the road paydays weigh in heavily, a step toward black ink winning out over the Black Knights.

GOING TO THE BANK

Largest road guarantees for UH football

Amount Game Season

$1.9M Michigan 2022

$1.2M Ohio State 2015

$1.1M Wisconsin 2015

$1M Oregon 2020

$750K UCLA 2021

Source: UH contracts.uc

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.