The Long Snapper (6/4/10)
College football. Quick and to the point.
The Big Ten? Nope. The Mountain West snatching up Boise State? Not even close. The latest splash in the expansion talks are rumors that seem to be gaining ground that the Pac-10 will strike the first blow. The conference looks like it’s ready to hand out invitations to Big 12 powers Oklahoma and Texas AND Colorado, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech. Wanting to make a gigantic move all at one time, the Pac-10 doesn’t seem to be waiting for any other conference to make changes. It’s an interesting strategy and one that actually makes the most sense. Why wait for the Big Ten to change the balance of the college football landscape when you can make a move forward yourself? And each one of those teams will consider the switch. They have to. Think of the impact a conference made up of the current Pac-10 and those six will have. Talk about super conference, on the field and in terms of television contracts. Get ready for the ride. The college football world is about to look very different. And say goodbye to the Big 12. It was nice knowing you.
Speaking of Boise State to the Mountain West, if you believe everything you read (and you should, the internet doesn’t lie) the Broncos will be receiving an invite of their own sometime soon. The MWC wants to make itself presentable for the BCS in the future and adding Boise State moves them one step closer. The Broncos have recent success and are gaining a following outside of Idaho. But there is that pesky television problem. Boise isn’t the world’s largest market. If the Mountain West can bring on the Broncos and boost its level of competition, the BCS may have to take action down the road. They can’t ignore the “smaller” conferences forever.
There are more than a few people out there who want USF to schedule UCF again. New Bulls’ head coach Skip Holtz seems to be one of them, and fans are starting to voice their opinions as well. Stewart Mandel agrees the goal should be to play the big boys in the state, but scheduling FCS schools over UCF isn’t helping USF by any means. With the exception of a Florida, FSU, or Miami here and there, the Bulls’ out-of-conference schedule is generally a joke. While I wasn’t initially on board with bringing the Golden Knights back, I’m starting to come around. USF needs to make every effort it can to schedule BCS conference schools, but needs to always do its best to get FBS opponents on the slate when possible. And Alabama or Oklahoma once in a while doesn’t always make up for the little guys every year.
At the SEC springs meetings, Florida coach Urban Meyer made points about how the Gators move on from year to year. “[W]e’ve developed a program where they expect to go compete to go to Atlanta every year.” That’s definitely what you like to hear coming from the head coach. Meyer says you simply try to turn the page on history and move on. He doesn’t want the Gators to forget the past and, in fact, it’s part of the legacy that makes Florida the program that it is today, but Meyer feels the program is in a position where it has the talent to reload each year and put a competitive product on the field. There will be seasons when it’s a little harder than others, but a drop off is not expected. Believe you can compete with the best year in and year out is a big part of Meyer’s philosophy.