Personally, I really like the fact that the Navy game is now “Week Zero” for a lot of reasons. First, it allows me to be able to take my wife and son down to the game much more easily since school won’t have started. Second, a game at Navy before classes will be less of a distraction for the players over the course of the year, before classes get hard. Third, it puts Lehigh more in line with the more powerful FCS teams’ schedules, many of whom play a huge challenge to start the year before playing the games that “count” more for championships. Fourth, the nature of playing Navy means that it’s a unique sort of preparation – with a better chance to pull off an upset, depending on Navy’s returning players.
Matter of fact, I’m struggling to find the downsides.
