Here's how you know it's not a real story. If it was, when the University makes it right with this sailor - and they will - it won't get coverage. It'll get a blurb here and there, but it won't be front-page news.
The reason this is front-page right now is that the press tends to stick together. You've heard of the "coaches fraternity," right? There's something similar amongst the press; they all have the same goal in mind. They all need a story. They all have each other's backs when it comes to stuff like a big, mean, awful football coach snapping at a poor, just-doing-their-job reporter.
Case in point, Mike Gundy's famous "I'm a man! I'm 40!" rant. Gundy justifiably went off on an idiot reporter who did a hatchet job on Gundy's quarterback, Bobby Reid. The reporter was Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman, a paper as two-bit as the JournalStar. Nobody nationally reads Carlson's articles, but locally, Gundy read it and was pissed. Next news conference he gave Carlson a piece of his mind, and she very much deserved it. Guess who the national media sided with? Stewart Mandel wrote a lengthy piece on it in his mailbag later that month in which he valiantly rode to the rescue of Ms. Carlson - all the while completely missing the reason(s) for the disconnect between coaches and the media, or fans and the media.
The media sides with the media.
It doesn't matter if it is a real story or not. It is the University of Nebraska (particularly the football team) spurning the Military. That is the public perception. A good way to piss off a lot of Americans is to be anti-military.
And about Gundy, they still show clips of his outburst 3 or so years after the fact. I think he was in the right too for defending his player, but that doesn't mean it didn't bring negative press to OSU.