Sports

Sunk! USMMA Football Season on Hold

Government shutdown postpones U.S. Merchant Marine Academy football game with RPI.

The midshipmen from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy are officially marooned.

Army, Navy and Air Force will carry on with their respective football seasons, but the same priority has not been given to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

The NCAA Division III school will not play Saturday's 1 p.m. football game at RPI, the Troy school announced Thursday.

The Kings Point Academy has been closed since Monday, the affects of a federal government shutdown.

"I'm disappointed that the football game between RPI and Merchant Marine has been postponed due to the government shutdown," Liberty League Commissioner Tracy King said. "I'm sure the coaches and student-athletes at both institutions would like nothing more than to be out there competing on Saturday. The young men and women at the Merchant Marine Academy are proud to serve and represent our country. It's unfortunate that partisan politics has become a roadblock to their service."

The game was supposed to mark Homecoming for RPI, which will now build its weekend festivities around the Rensselaer-Clarkson women's soccer game.   

At 3-1, the USMMA football team was off to its best start in 15 seasons. Sophomore quarterback Matt McDaniels leads all of NCAA Division III in rushing yards four games into the season.

A makeup date of Nov. 2 at noon has been tentatively scheduled for the Liberty League game.

The Academy is funded by the Department of Transportation. Non-essential employees have been furloughed. Coaches at USMMA have been told not to comment.

If the shutdown extends more than a week, USMMA midshipmen will be sent home, according to the DOT. That will impact approximately 720 students on campus, who will have the option of going home until operations resume.

The DOT said 225 midshipmen at sea on 4- to 8-month training cruises will be allowed to continue. 

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