MWC is OK for me

“Did you hear the Big 12 might kick Baylor out of the

conference?”

“I guess the Pac-10 might expand to 12 teams and they may add

CSU and BYU.”

“CSU needs to get into a BCS conference.”

I’ve heard similar versions of these quotes many times over the

past year or two. Yes, it would be nice if CSU were in a BCS

conference. The money would flow like the Amazon into the athletic

program and coach Lubick may take the program from a perennial

top-25 team to a perennial top-15 team.

But, sorry to say Ram fans, it is not going to happen, at least

not in the near future, nor does it need to happen. Lubick and the

players have certainly built a good enough football program for a

BCS conference, but conference realities and lack of support will

keep it from happening.

The only BCS conferences CSU would fit into would be the Big 12

or the Pac-10. On the off chance the Big 12 dropped Baylor, I don’t

think it would be looking toward Fort Collins to fill the void.

Baylor is in the Big 12 South, so the conference would most likely

look to another Texas team like our Conference USA foes Texas

Christian.

The Pac-10 doesn’t seem to have any need or want to expand to 12

teams. The only reason would be a championship game. If they did

add two more teams, BYU is a viable candidate, but CSU wouldn’t fit

the bill for the second and most important reason: money.

CSU has the lowest stadium capacity (30,000) of any team in the

MW C. Although the $15.2 million donation by the Bohemian

foundation will expand the stadium to near 36,000, it still doesn’t

fit the bill for the Pac-10. Lubick was praising the turnout of

28,611 at his press conference today.

The attendance problem does not lie with the students it is

squarely on the community.

“(Community support is) the biggest problem at Colorado State,”

Lubick said in an interview last week. “I think the students are

great. We’ve got a nice community out here of 120,000 and the

product has been good. You would think that we should sell 15,000

or 20,000 season tickets and that would make all the difference.

That’s our own fault. All those other schools have 30,000 season

ticket holders and their schools aren’t much bigger than ours.”

The reason, I think, for the lack of support is past. When most

CSU alumni were here, the football team was horrible. They are

excited about the team now, but it is hard to shake the tradition

of not going to many games.

The attitude at Michigan, Nebraska, Tennessee or any other big

name school is, “I’m going to the game barring an emergency.”

But there is a lingering attitude in Fort Collins of, “Oh, we’re

only playing Weber State this week, it’s going to be a blowout.”

Or, “The weather is supposed to suck, I don’t know if I’m

going.”

I think the transformation in attitude of demanding temporary

seating be put in or the stadium be expanded more is happening, and

we will get there in five or six years.

But when we reach that point, we don’t need to be in the

BCS.

The MWC is a solid conference, perhaps the best outside the BCS.

This year, San Diego State should have knocked off the defending

national champion Ohio State Buckeyes on the road in a 16-13 loss.

UNLV just beat No. 15 Wisconsin in Madison, one of the toughest

places to play in the country. BYU beat Georgia Tech; Utah beat

California. Not to mention CSU’s success against the BCS over the

past couple years, including wins against Colorado, Virginia and

California to name a few.

I agreed with Lubick when he told me “the BCS is full of BS.”

They need teams outside the BCS for their non-conference games, and

they always get to play at home.

“I wish they would break away and have they’re own little

60-team league and play each other all the time. They couldn’t

survive doing that,” Lubick said.

No they couldn’t.