BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Birmingham, Al. is the #1 college football TV market for ESPN. Has been for years.

Last I heard conference invites were still made by university presidents, who tend to care about such things. How many non-AAU schools are in the Big Ten?

 

To be fair, it’s tough for a school to recover once Bob Stull leaves. Took MU two decades and a conference switch.

 

Cowboy hats in Dallas. Cowboy hats in Laramie. SMU will get an invite if the B12 dies.

 

I’d love to see UTEP be a player in football for those reasons. But it’s in a town without a lot of money. School doesn’t have a lot of money. Resources are subpar. They need a Boone Pickens.

 

When I was first on the academic job market, I had a couple of conversations with UTEP. I probably wasn't going to go there, but (pretty much) anybody wants to talk to me about me coming to work with 'em, I'm all ears.

Anyway, I suppose I'd made the sorta short list, because out of the blue I got this anonymous letter telling me to avoid UTEP. It was clearly from a disgruntled faculty member because, at that point in the search, only faculty members would know who was being considered.

I remember one line in particular: "I don't think this would be a good environment for you because all the good faculty members have left."

Hmmmmmmm ...

 

El Paso is where college football titans go to lose on purpose when they flounder their way out of a good bowl.

 

Really? That's precious. Syracuse and North Carolina committed academic fraud in the name of athletics for a generation. Stanford had a list of gut classes for athletes. My alma mater created the "University College" (!) to matriculate jocks who couldn't meet the same requirements I did.

Don't @ me.

 

I went to the Sun Bowl one year as a fan and had an absolutely fantastic time. Tremendous hospitality, great fireworks show, capped off by one of the best games I've ever seen. Former players I have talked to raved about what a great time they had at the Sun Bowl.

My alma mater had a "university college" as well, downtown on Lombardy Avenue. Of course it was nicknamed UCLA.

 

Beavers 3, Pitt 0 is the greatest Sun Bowl ever.

 

Are you trying to tell me that some colleges cheat in the name of getting more wins? My god, where's my fainting couch? Such a thing is completely unheard of when you live in the SEC footprint.

/clutches pearls.

How many non-AAU teams did you say were in the Big Ten? How many are on a short list to be added to it?

 

I’m in a state of mourning for the college sports atmosphere I grew up with.

Kansas, K-State, Mizzou in their basketball battles and, briefly, fun football games at the end of Mangino. That’s gone forever.

Big Ten football now is anti-climatic. The East is 7 for 7 since the Leaders/Legends split up. Ohio State makes the playoff and the West opponent is about 10-14 points behind.

The Big Ten used to have a quirky rule to determine a champion. If two teams were tied for first and the head to head didn’t decide it, the Big Ten would crown the program that had gone the longest since winning the conference. That’s part of why Wisconsin went in 1993 and Illinois and Purdue in later years.

Those days are forever gone. For old codgers like me, that also plays a role in why we’re just not engaged anymore in college football for in-person. I love college football. I’m fortunate to make good money and have Saturdays off. I’d rather spend more money on all the sports packages than watching a Big Ten West program in-person try go to the same bowl in Florida they always go to. Yawn.

 

UCLA 6, Illinois 3 on Dec. 31, 1991. Wind ruins all sports except sailing. It was/is windy in El Paso.