Left in the Lurch, Idaho Must Go On Alone

The days when college conferences were held together by academics and geography are gone.

In this ugly new age, all that matters is perceived football prowess and access to television markets. That means even more universities are changing their conference allegiances.

The latest shake up came on Friday with the expansion of Conference USA. Texas-San Antonio, Louisiana Tech, UNC-Charlotte, North Texas and Florida International all defected from their respective conferences (the WAC, Atlantic-10 and Sun Belt).

That means 31 universities - more than a quarter in all of Division I football - will have switched conferences for various stated reasons such as stability or more prestige. Granted, most college presidents do not have the audacity to freely admit they are moving conferences to chase more money.

With Utah State and San Jose State also finding new conference home in the WAC 2.0, also known as the Mountain West, you can, as Brett McMurphy put it, "start carving the tombstone" for the WAC.

That's a shame considering the WAC is the sixth oldest D-I football conference and will have had 26 members at one time or another when the D-I expands to 125 programs in 2013.

That also means a school near and dear to my heart, the University of Idaho, has been left in the lurch.

The Vandals, despite doing things the right way with student-athlete graduation and leading the WAC Commissioner's Cup, are out of good options. Idaho is in a minuscule television market, it's regional TV footprint is over shadowed by the Smurf Turf to the south and there has not been any consistent success on the Palouse.

What is being widely suggested by many sports writers for the Vandals, a drop back to the I-AA level and the Big Sky Conference, would be a disaster.

Too Late For A Real USA Conference

A real Conference USA is happening!

Last week, word dropped that the Mountain West Conference (or WAC 2.0) and Conference USA agreed to form a football alliance. They hope the move will help solidify both conferences and maybe lead to an automatic BCS bid.

Sadly, this announcement comes too little too late in the conference shuffle.

There's a perceived pecking order in college sports, right or wrong. 

In the last conference shuffle, the ACC poached the Big East who gobbled up the best of C-USA. That's likely going to happen again with newest ACC expansion.

So when the Big 12 lost two members last fall, anyone who remotely follows college football knew at some point the Big 12 would make a push to get back to 12, the minimum number needed to hold a conference championship game. The conference appears to be losing even more members, so will likely push to add more.

A year ago, I suggested the WAC and C-USA should merge, creating an All-American conference stretching from the Carolina coast to Hawaii. That move would have gotten the schools ahead of the eight ball.

More than adding to the collective bargaining power to lobby for a BCS spot, a merger a year ago would have provided stability. It is a lot easier for a 18-team conference or alliance to survive members jumping ship than a nine team conference.

At this point, the 22-school football alliance between MWC and C-USA feels like a last gasp to stay relevant. 

Next year, the MWC will add three so-so football schools, but two of its best schools (Air Force and Boise State) could jump ship. Same goes for the best football schools in C-USA. Central Florida, Houston and SMU all have reportedly received invites to the Big East.

There's too many variables to write this merger off at this point. But with the best schools likely to move up the ladder, it's hard to imagine this experiment working out any differently than the 16-team WAC.

The main reason the mega WAC broke up, was because the four time zones and 3,900 miles separating Hawaii from Texas was too much of a travel burden for its members. 

College football is big business and big money, so this could work out. Only time will tell, but both conferences are playing catch up. That's a bad place to be.

Conference Mayhem Spiraling Out of Control

Conference turmoil is hanging over college football like a dark cloud.

The chase for more television money and prestige is killing the fun of old fashioned regional rivalries.

When the University of Pittsburgh exits the Big East, it's going to try to keep the Backyard Brawl going with West Virginia who's a mere 75 miles down the road, but no guarantees.


Looks like a growing blood feud is going to keep Texas and A&M from playing its traditional Thanksgiving weekend matchup, when the Aggies jump ship to the SEC.

The constant barrage of rumors of schools trading up, is nearly as annoying as the excuses they give during the shuffle. The real reason behind any move these days is money.

Still it doesn't stop school admins from spouting their spin.

Take mid-major darling TCU, which became the latest team to jump conferences this week, moving from the Mountain West to the Big East to the Big 12 in just 315 days.

TCU's athletic director Chris Del Conte made sure to puff up academics during the switches. 

Del Conte on the Big East, Nov. 2010:"Every single time we have an opportunity to think about where we're going to go, that's the leadership of our chancellor that says, 'Guess what? We dare to be great academically and athletically.' This decision [to go to the Big East] is great for TCU. ... The academic institutions that we're going to be associated with is unbelievable." 

Del Conte on the Big 12, Oct. 2011: "Joining the Big 12 connects us not only to schools with whom we share a rich tradition in sports, but also to schools committed to academic excellence."

Conference changes are going happen. But it used to be based on geographic and academic ties.

I'll give TCU the benefit of the doubt here, because it is now linked to a Texas-centric conference, than one centered around NYC.

Could the conferences at least wait until summer to do their school shopping?

It's crazy, it's distracting and at the end of the day it's ruining the fun of college sports. I just hope the revolving door stops spinning soon.