In college football.
News yesterday about TCU bolting the Mountain West to join the Big East has me thinking that college pigskin is rapidly becoming less about tradition, loyalty, and geography and more about the big payout.
Did the upper echelon of Horned Frogs even consider the Big 12? And vice versa?
Probably not, on both counts.
Still, it's hard to blame TCU for the move. They want to be part of an AQ conference and the Big East wanted a football power. Putting a consistent winner on the field brings prestige, money, exposure, money, respect, and money.
Yet I can't stop thinking about the not-so-good schools in Division I football. My own alma mater of New Mexico State University among them.
The NMSU Aggies will keep playing and keep losing most of the time. They'll attract folks to the stadium for the home games, yet the crowds will be small and the cheers will be faint.
How much longer? How much longer can a school such as this continue to field a perpetually poor team? How much longer can NMSU be in the basement of FBS teams? How much longer can an institution put up with being a punching bag on the gridiron?
Hard to say. Maybe 10 more years, perhaps 15 or 20.
If any of you think I'm being far too pessimistic, allow me to remind you of a conference called the Big West. This is the conference NMSU belonged to when I was a student there. It still exists, with several of the same schools (UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, University of the Pacific).
None of these schools has football anymore.
I'm sure the reasons are many, but the fact that these institutions were never very competitive on the football field is the main factor (just my humble opinion).
When will NMSU throw in the towel and dump the football program?
Tick, tick, tick.
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