The sports story of the year is playing out on the shores of the Chesapeake in the beautiful eastern Maryland town of Annapolis. It is here we find the underdog, the hero and that enlightening sense of reality we too often take for granted. It is here we find a team of brothers with an unshakable bond, a gang of glory. If Navy weren't 5-0 for the first time since 1979, if the Middies weren't in the process of turning the college football world sideways with an improbable run at -- holy moly! -- the BCS, it would be just like any fall at Navy. And this weekend's game against Notre Dame would be just like any of the 40 consecutive Irish victories over the Middies.

But it's not. A moment of painful perspective before the season opener against Duke made sure of that. Minutes before the game, the team was told Ron Winchester, a star offensive lineman for the Middies in 2000, was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq. Only a handful of players on the current team knew Winchester, but the enormity and reality of the situation galvanized this group.

The team already had turned the corner under third-year coach Paul Johnson and quickly was becoming a factor again in Division I football. Now it had even more motivation.

"If you sign that piece of paper to play for Navy," says quarterback Aaron Polanco, "you have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice."

Want to root for someone this week? Pull for Navy. Not because of Irish hatred or BCS frustration or any other useless, frivolous fight. Pull for the guys no big-time BCS school wants but every man, woman and child in this country desperately needs. Pull for the humble, hard-working Johnson, who used to win national championships at Division IAA Georgia Southern but returned to Annapolis because it was the right thing to do.

"What does us being 5-0 mean?" says Johnson, offensive coordinator at the academy in 1995 and '96. "We can't be any worse than 5-6." Don't believe it. If a physical, punishing Navy team beats Notre Dame this weekend, the schedule sets up for the Middies to deliver the sports story of the year. After the Irish, Navy finishes with Rice, Delaware, Tulane, Rutgers and Army. No one among that group can handle the precision of Navy's triple-option offense or its physical offensive and defensive lines.

So if the Middies run the table and capture our imaginations, how could the Fiesta Bowl not choose a service academy over any other BCS-eligible team? How could the Fiesta Bowl pass on an overwhelming media spotlight and advertising bonanza that would make the Orange Bowl national championship game look like Eastern Michigan vs. Ball State?

This is what college sports -- amateur sports -- are all about: the underdog, the unthinkable and the poetry that plays out with every passing week of a magical season. We're so accepting of the green and greed of college football, of strippers, payoffs, booster slush funds and convicted felons with second chances running around campus. Yet we scoff at the honor, discipline and dedication of a team because its players don't have those little BCS stickers on the backs of their helmets.

Two weeks ago, Navy traveled across the country to Colorado to play fellow service academy Air Force. Polanco led a last-minute drive, and kicker Geoff Blumenfeld hit his first field goal of the season in the final seconds to help the Middies win one of their two toughest games of the season. They walked off the field to a standing ovation from the crowd in Colorado Springs, Colo.

This weekend at Giants Stadium, across the river from a forever-altered New York City skyline, we all know what's at stake.

"I don't know that they talk a great deal about the situation in Iraq," Johnson says. "It's just something they see themselves doing when they graduate. It's what they signed up for." Sign the letter, son. Enrich your life, fight for your country. And be a part of the sports story of the year.

Honor, Leadership, Effort !!!