Over the past six seasons, Army is the least-penalized team in the nation, while Air Force is second and Navy sixth.
Not surprisingly, the discipline instilled in students at the U.S. service academies consistently carries over to the gridiron.
Ahead of the start of the 157th college football season, ActionNetwork.com has updated its "Dirty Score" rankings, identifying the most and least penalized NCAA Division I FBS teams over the past six seasons (2020–2025). It’s no shock that the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy all ranked among the six least-penalized college football programs in the nation.
The Dirty Score is a single number (from 0 to 100) that ranks how disciplined or undisciplined each college football team was over the past six seasons. It's based on four key stats: penalties per game, penalty yards per game, penalty first downs per game and penalties per play. Each team's performance was compared to others in the same season, then averaged across multiple years. A score of 100 means the "dirtiest" team; 0 means the cleanest.
Army was the cleanest team in the country, with a remarkably low Dirty Score of just 0.74. Over six seasons, the Black Knights averaged only 3.72 penalties, 32.80 penalty yards and 1.18 penalty first downs per game, with flags thrown on just 3% of their plays.
Air Force followed closely behind in second place with a Dirty Score of 1.47, while Navy was sixth with a 4.41 score. To see the scores for all 130-plus teams, as well as the historical data used for the analysis and the detailed methodology, click here.
The American Legion is entering its third year as an associate sponsor of the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA. “America’s Game” will take place Saturday, Dec. 12, at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. And The American Legion is awarding an opportunity for eight Legionnaires and one guest to attend the game through a membership incentive.
Additionally, two tickets will be awarded to the top department in each of the five regions based on the November membership target date standings.
Learn more about the promotion here.
Both Army and Navy kick off their 2026 seasons this Saturday, Sept. 5 – Army at home vs. Bryant and Navy playing host to Towson.
- Army-Navy Game