My thoughts on college expansion

College football expansion talk has exploded. Some of the dominoes have already fallen and more to follow this week.

Boise State got what it wanted, an invite to the Mountain West. I would be careful what I wished for in that conference. I know the big dogs in the conference aren’t looking to stick around much longer because of the horrible TV contract they have in place. When it is all said and done, don’t be surprised if the WAC and Mountain West merge together like the old days.

Here in Salt Lake, the Utes want out of the Mountain West. They were mentioned as one of the teams to the expanded PAC-16. I was hoping the expansion would stop at 12 because a mega conference sounds unappealing. These mega-conferences are all about the dollars now and college football, as we know it will not be the same.

Some people are saying it is the end of the BCS and there will be a playoff. I find this hard to believe. These mega-conferences have one goal – leave the small schools out of the picture.

In my opinion, the business of college athletics has gotten out of control. With the mega-conferences, it will get worse. Congress is even rumored to get involved, especially with revoking tax-exempt status from these state schools.

I love college sports and I have a lot of pride for the University of Idaho. But what is the cost in the long run? The costs are going to get out of control and these smaller schools will not be able to compete anymore. Schools may drop football or drop down to smaller divisions, such as D-II or D-III.

Students are paying for college sports. I didn’t mind paying for sports, but if the cost keeps going up, is it even worth it anymore? The Salt Lake Tribune did a good in-depth article about the costs associated with college sports and how much college students are actually paying for it. The Mountain West schools are actually paying more per student. Here’s the article if you are interested in reading it: http://www.sltrib.com/D=g/ci_15208016 Another source to check out is the budgets for each school in the NCAA. Check out how much state funding each school gets. Boise State still gets state funding, even though their fans brag about “how much their athletic department makes and pays for everything else”.

Everyone is saying the expanded PAC-10 will bring in more money, however, some of these experts are forgetting about the increased costs involved. Washington teams will be traveling to Texas. Does Bill Moos (AD at WSU) want to send it’s swimming team to Texas every year? Do the Longhorns women’s soccer team want to travel all the way to Seattle?

How do you fix this? It will be hard to fix the mega-business of college athletics. It is bordering on professional status, especially with the sanctions put on USC.

One solution is to scrap college athletics all together. Most of these athletic programs get money from their respective states anyways. Maybe the NFL can fund some sort of minor league system like the NBA does for the developmental league. Get rid of the Arena Football league and build a real minor league system. Players can attend college if they want or have real jobs.

Second solution is to keep college athletics, but scale it down significantly. Schools should offer only a handful of sports. Schools should not be sponsoring 20 plus athletic programs. You can’t get around Title IX, but you can still be in compliance if fewer sports are offered. I think conferences should decide which sports to offer and all schools follow. For example, the Western Athletic Conference can offer ten sports – football, women’s soccer, men and women’s track, men and women’s golf, men and women’s basketball, softball and baseball.

If college athletic programs were scaled down, it would be smart to scale down these conferences. I think making regional conferences would be a smarter idea. Some conferences can be non-football. For example many Big Sky teams need to drop football for financial reasons. I suggest Idaho State, Montana State, Eastern Washington, Western Washington, Weber State, Gonzaga, Portland State, and Seattle U create some sort of conference and focus on basketball.

There should be a number of football conferences as well. I think an 8-10 team league will be sufficient.

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