When Cliff Yu was a student at Cal-Berkeley, he thought the annual Big Game with Stanford was college football's best rivalry.

But now that he is Lt. Col. Cliff Yu, a doctor in the Army and a veteran of two Army-Navy games, he has a different take.

"I've never been to a game where there is so much tradition and the rivalry really meant something," said Yu, stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "To tell you the truth, this one is the biggest rivalry."

Yu is an Army officer who did not attend West Point yet has been absorbed by the game. He'll attend his third on Saturday in Philadelphia when the two Academies meet for the 100th time.

Officers from both branches and average fans around the country will tune in, but Yu and others know the game isn't necessarily embraced by the enlisted personnel. A few years ago, a paper in Norfolk, Va., sent a reporter to the huge Naval base there to ask regular sailors if they were excited about the upcoming Army-Navy game. The consensus: It's an officers' game.

"The culture of the military, particularly in the Army and Navy, is mandatory separation of officers and enlisted," said Yu. "The fraternization issue is a really big issue. ... It's not hard for me to understand that the enlisted men might feel left out."

Author John Feinstein, who wrote a book on the rivalry called "A Civil War," agrees that it's "more an officer's game than enlisted man's game." But he shares evidence that some enlisted personnel care.

"If you watch the game, you'll see players from both teams wearing patches from units around the world that are sent to them by the men in those units," said Feinstein. "Andrew Thompson, a captain of the Navy team in 1995, is now in charge of a Marine unit in Japan, and he has told me that the guys in his unit want to be involved in deciding which Navy players will wear patches."

John Grady, spokesman for the Association of the U.S. Army, a private, non-profit advocacy group for the nation's largest service, said the rank-and-file who have made the Army a career generally get as excited about the game as the officers. But younger recruits, who are short-timers in the Army, have little interest.

"Does an 18-19-year-old private or seaman take it as seriously? Probably not," he said. "If they've made a commitment to a career, (the excitement) cuts across the ranks."

At Naval installations in Bremerton, Wash., no special events are planned and no one seems particularly excited. According to Lt. Kevin Stephens, there's usually more excitement at overseas bases because the game appeals to the homesick.

"Here people do just whatever they want to do for the game, but there's not a big organized deal," said Stephens.

To the young enlisted sailors, it's just another game.

"My loyalties are to my home state, and by that I mean Wisconsin," said Petty Officer Gary Taylor.

At the Pentagon, where many of the workers are civilians or enlisted personnel, bands from the respective services will march through the corridors, signs will be hung and friendly wagers made.

At the Naval Support Activity-Mid South base in Millington, Tenn., the local chapter of the Academy's alumni association will have a game-day party at a sports bar. Again, though, it's mostly for officers. And for most of those officers, the passion began at the same place.

"From the time you're a plebe at the Academy, it's impressed upon you that your fate depends on the outcome of the Army-Navy game," said Lt. Cmdr. David Johnson, a 1987 Annapolis grad.

Lt. Camille Garrett was a freshman cheerleader at Annapolis in 1991. She remembers how Navy came into the game with a 0-10 record but beat Army 24-3 to save the Midshipmen's season.

"This game is everything," she said. "If you're a plebe at the Academy you get privileges if you win the game, (like listening to) stereos, or you get to sit at ease when you eat. When you beat Army everything changes."