ANNAPOLIS, Md. – There is no better measure of a rivalry than the pain it inflicts on the loser.

To Blake Horvath, the feeling of singing his school’s alma mater first – the assigned order of the team that comes up on the short side of the scoreboard in a service academy game – brings about a pronounced aching.

“Singing first, it physically hurts,” said Navy’s prolific senior quarterback, who hasn’t experienced the sensation since his sophomore year. “You know your fans aren’t singing with as much enthusiasm. You know you’re not singing with the same kind of loudness.

“It’s an embarrassment to sing first.”

But …

“On the flip side, singing second, you can feel the joy and excitement,” Horvath continued. “After the Army/Navy game last year it was the loudest I’ve heard our alma mater sang.”

Air Force vs. Navy, which will play its 58th installment in Annapolis, Md. on Saturday, isn’t even close to tops among service academy rivalries. Army/Navy, with its history and lucrative CBS contract and an entire weekend on the football calendar exclusively its own, has that title locked down.

Comparing rivalries is a fool’s errand. Everybody thinks theirs is better. Ohio State/Michigan. Auburn/Alabama. Oklahoma/Texas. On and on and on. For one invested in any of these, they matter.

Saturday’s game most certainly matters for Air Force.

A loss would eliminate the Falcons from contention for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. At 0-3 in the Mountain West, they already have a near zero chance of contending for a league title. And though they would remain alive for bowl eligibility, it would suddenly require at least five wins over the final seven games.

But …

A win would give Air Force a chance to capture the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy at home against Army next month. It would snap a three-game losing skid, perhaps changing the trajectory of the season. It would mark three consecutive wins on Navy’s home field, avenge a blowout loss to the Midshipmen last year and, while it wouldn’t impact the Mountain West standings, would certainly improve the Falcons’ chances of earning bowl eligibility.

“This one’s huge, especially in this situation that we’re in right now,” Air Force slot receiver Cade Harris said. “We need a win bad, and to get that over a good Navy team this week would be huge.”

Huge for all the stated reasons, not to mention the recruiting advantages that come to these teams that fish from the same limited talent pool. There are also down-the-road bragging rights as these future officers from the academies inevitably co-mingle while serving on active duty.

Winning these games is the No. 1 goal for Air Force, Army and Navy, and considering the goal-oriented mindset that it generally takes to make it to and at an academy, that’s no small thing.

But there’s one more emotional factor at play.

Harris and linebacker Blake Fletcher, the two players Air Force designated to speak to media this week, used a specific phrase when talking about the CIC Trophy.

“Back where it belongs,” both said when talking about returning the trophy to Air Force.

There’s a clear sense of ownership here, a feeling no doubt resulting from the Falcons’ status as the most frequent winner in the series (Air Force has won the CIC 21 times, Navy 16, Army 10).

When something that “belongs” to someone is taken, it creates a void. A sense of loss. Pain.

In sports, only a true rivalry elicits that feeling.

For an Air Force team stuck in a three-game rut, this is a chance to finally avoid the hurt.

“We can’t look in the past, we can’t dwell on things that happened then,” Fletcher said. “We’ve got to move on and we’ve got to look at what’s ahead of us, and that’s the first step in the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.”