The first week of November is going to be a busy one for sports at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
On Saturday that week, the Midshipmen’s undefeated football team will face longtime rival Notre Dame in a big-time matchup. And on Friday, the men’s basketball team is hosting its annual Veterans Classic doubleheader.
And now, a high-profile matchup between two AP Top 25 ranked teams in women’s college basketball is moving to Alumni Hall on campus.
Sources close to the event confirmed to SB Nation that Navy will host the clash between No. 1 UConn and No. 20 Louisville on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
ESPN confirmed this original report hours after it was published Thursday evening. The game will tip-off at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Billed as the Peraton Armed Forces Classic, the game had long been scheduled to be played at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, but organizers scrambled in recent days to find a new home for the matchup because of the government shutdown’s impact on the base.
The shutdown is now in its 23rd day, and it means that paychecks for active duty military members and other federal employees aren’t rolling in. Many facilities are scaling back operations and resources. The Ramstein Air Base’s website says that “civilian personnel not engaged in excepted activities will be placed in a non-work, non-pay status,” and the American Legion notes that many of the base’s offices and programs are closed or offering “limited services.”
Last week, CT Insider reported that Ramstein Air Base stopped communicating with ESPN Events as of Oct. 6. A spokesperson for ESPN told SB Nation last week that it was “exploring contingency plans due to the circumstances.”
While the Naval Academy is feeling some impacts of the shutdown, its athletics department is mostly protected. The Naval Academy Athletic Association is a nonprofit that acts independently from the Department of Defense and the federal government. In 2017, former Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said that the NAAA employs Navy coaches, owns the football stadium and gets only about 1% of its revenue from government support.
Speaking earlier this week at Louisville’s media day, Cardinals’ women’s basketball coach Jeff Walz said he was “pretty confident” the game wasn’t going to be played in Germany.
“But at the same time, 100 percent sure we will play the game – it’s just a matter of where… Discouraged that our elected officials couldn’t figure out a way to get our country back up and running, but nothing surprising these days,” Walz said. “I don’t think it’s going to be our [his and Geno Auriemma’s] call to where things go… But ESPN has been great. ESPN has been nothing but first-class.”
Auriemma mostly shied away from talking about it at Big East Media Day, saying, “Is this a Pentagon question or a White House question? Am I going to get arrested if I say the wrong answer? I’m not sure.”
ESPN has been hosting the Armed Forces Classic since 2012. This will be the first time it has been hosted by one of the Service Academies.
Other locations considered for the game included Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and venues connected to the campuses of Louisville and UConn, sources said.
The shutdown began on Oct. 1 when the Senate failed to advance a House-passed GOP bill to keep the government at existing funding through Nov. 21. Democrats in the Senate are demanding health care policy changes — specifically regarding extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act marketplaces — that President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have refused to entertain. According to NPR, some 24 million people use the ACA system to buy health plans. On Wednesday, for the 12th time, Democrats in the Senate blocked Republicans’ short-term funding bill to reopen the government. The shutdown is expected to last at least through Monday, which would mark Day 27, as the Senate adjourned for the weekend on Thursday afternoon.
Trump’s first term in office saw a record-long government shutdown, lasting 35 days. The shutdown is expected to last at least through Monday, which would mark Day 27, as the Senate adjourned for the weekend on Thursday afternoon.
Navy’s Alumni Hall opened in 1991 and seats about 5,700 fans.
UConn is 20-3 all-time against Louisville and has won three of the last four meetings. This will mark the ninth time the Cardinals and Huskies have met on a neutral court.
