In Which Your Humble Correspondent Muses On The State Of College Football

Author's Note: My European friends and non-sports fans will have no idea what this post is about. My apologies for that. Also, this is the first of three college sports related posts, two of which are Mizzou-centric. My apologies for that, too. Finally, for my Texas readers, know that I like your state. I've spent some enjoyable time there and find you to be a very hospitable people. It's just that sometimes, certain things must be said.--RS

There are times during our lives when we are forced to confront certain contradictions which we embrace without thought most of the time. The reason we don't do it all the time is that such contradictions are uncomfortable. They're uncomfortable, because the fact that we embrace them demonstrates a certain lack of rationality on our parts.

For me, my current feelings about the state of NCAA Division I BCS football fall within that category.

As regular readers are aware, I attended the University of Missouri, known to the world as, "Mizzou." I drank deeply from the well of addictive Kool-Aid of "the old alma mater" during my undergraduate, graduate and law school years there. It starts the moment one arrives as an 18 year old freshman. You learn the history and traditions. You learn the culture. You're injected with pride in the institution and told you're now part of a wider "family" of graduates. It provides a connection with thousands of people you've never met.

Case in point: Sometime during the 1990's, I was on one of my occasional solo road trips out west, to Great Basin National Park, I think. I was taking a roundabout route, and wound up getting gas in the tiny town of Dalhart, Texas. While I was gassing up, a local in a Ford F-150 with Texas plates pulled in and was filling his tank, as well. I was looking at the rear window of his truck cab and noticed a "University of Missouri" window sticker. The driver didn't look old enough to have kids there so I took a chance and said, "M, I, Z," the first part of the quintessential Mizzou student sports cheer. He looked up at me, smiled and said, "Z, O, U." That led to a pleasant twenty minute chat about our respective times in Columbia.

So, school spirit runs deep, especially with sports, as readers of these pages will no doubt surmise. The above is especially true, viz. The University of Missouri versus the (Evil) University of Kansas. Search the term "KU Snark" below for taste or simply click here for one example.

That said, regular readers will also acknowledge, that I've been critical of big time college athletics on these pages. Back in 2007, I wrote this post, decrying the current scheme wherein young athletes are recruited to play football or basketball in exchange for scholarships, wherein few if any actually graduate. Those who don't are tossed out, having made millions for their respective universities. It's an unfortunate state of affairs, and it troubles me to say the least, because I'm a part of it to a small degree.

If memory serves, this is the first NCAA Football post on these pages this season. This year we've had the nightmare at Penn State (Google "Sandusky Penn State," if you're unfamiliar with it, but be forewarned: You'll regret it), the usual recruiting scandals and finally, conference realignment, wherein my beloved Mizzou Tigers will henceforth be playing in the Southeastern Conference instead of the Big 12, a conference whose roots go back to the turn of the 20th century.

I'm ambivalent about the conference change. There is a century's worth of tradition playing against the schools of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Oklahoma. Heck, even in the early Twentieth Century, the Tigers and Longhorns disappeared into the wilds of Mexico for month doing nothing except playing exhibition football games. No one at either university knew where the hell their teams were.

Of course, it's all about the money, and I know I'm biased, but the responsibility for the break-up falls squarely on the shoulders of the University of Texas. Understand, I don't begrudge it starting it's own sports TV network, nor do I begrudge it keeping all the money, even though the money is/was predicated upon the cooperation of eleven other universities. But by the same token, one cannot behave in this fashion and essentially use the other universities' participation as a cash-cow, and expect them to play along. First, Colorado and Nebraska. Now Texas A&M (the most aggrieved party, in my view) and Mizzou. Don't blame the the latter four institutions for protecting their own interests, just as much as you protected yours.

There is a part of me which saw this coming the moment the former Big Eight Conference merged with four Texas teams of the defunct Southwest Conference. Ultimately, Texas was going to run the show. Now, the chickens are home roosting, and Kansas, Kansas State and Iowa State are looking on helplessly as another Texas team (TCU) joins the conference. Good luck with being the Texas state and  Longhorn whipping boys for the foreseeable future.

R. Sherman