The government shutdown could cancel service academy sports. Army, Navy, and Air Force could have their football games next weekend cancelled because of the shutdown.
The football games that could be cancelled are Army at Boston College and Air Force at Navy. But it isn’t just football that’s affected. The Defense Department has temporarily suspended all sports competition at service academies. Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said that lawyers are trying to decide if non-appropriated funds could be used by the Air Force and Army for their games on Saturday, according to ESPN.
There are differences in how each academy funds their athletics programs," Urban told ESPN.com’s Mark Schlabach. “One academy can pay for its entire program through non-appropriated funds. Others do not have that setup."
According to Urban, a couple of offers have been made to pay for the service academy’s travel costs to the games if the shutdown doesn’t end before Saturday. No potential donors were identified. ESPN reports that the Naval Academy funds its athletic programs through unappropriated funds from sources such as ticket sales and tv rights. Army and the Air Force Academy partially fund their athletic programs through appropriated funds, so they would be affected by the shutdown.
This isn’t the first time that a government shutdown has affected service academies sports programs. In 1995 during a six-day government shutdown, Army, Navy, and Air Force all played football games, according to the Associated Press. In a statement the Naval Academy said that a decision will be made by noon on Thursday regarding their game against Air Force. Army issued a statement saying 'Sporting competitions can still be at risk but are being assessed by our chain of command and Department of the Army” the AP reports.