Little Guys Get Left Out as Big Boys Reap Riches

Hey, what about us?

The rise of the college football super conferences has left second-tier division I-A leagues scrambling for identity and survival.

Forget about a trickle-down theory in this economic plan, in which six conferences--the Pac-10, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East--reap the benefits of huge television profits and bowl alliance slots while the rest of Division I-A fights for table scraps.

The merging of the Southwest conference’s best four teams with the Big Eight, forming the Big 12, caused a domino effect that forced the have-nots into a chaotic game of musical chairs.

To give you an idea on the disparate theories, the Big West down-sized from 10 to six teams, while the Western Athletic expanded from 10 to 16.

The Big West, which is constantly reinventing itself, decided to cut its losses and simplify.

Except that it wasn’t that simple.

The conference that formed in 1969 as a football-only league for California universities, and remains headquartered in Irvine, opens the football season with six teams, not one from the Golden State.

The conference has watched programs at Long Beach State, Cal State Fullerton and Pacific die slow deaths.

It has weathered the recent defections to the Western Athletic Conference by Nevada Las Vegas and San Jose State.

By choice, the Big West thankfully ended its confusing alliance with Arkansas State, Northern Illinois, Louisiana Tech and Southwestern Louisiana.

So, the Big West is left with six football schools: New Mexico State, Nevada, Utah State, North Texas State, Boise State and Idaho.

Boise State and Idaho are moving up from I-AA, sort of. Idaho cannot be officially recognized as Division I-A because its stadium, domed and not expandable, holds fewer than the 30,000 required by the NCAA.

Television contract? Oh, the Big West doesn’t have one, although there are plans in the works.

“We’re not dying on the vine,” Big West Commissioner Dennis Farrell said. “If anything, we feel the six schools we have now, none of them are contemplating dropping football, or contemplating going elsewhere, so we’re almost stronger with the six we’re lining up with now compared to the last 10 years, where there was a lot of uncertainty, with schools dropping football.”

Farrell, who said the Big West is looking to add two more football teams, thinks there is a niche for smaller conferences.

But what about humongous ones?

The WAC decided to float its “Big Tent,” theory this season, adding six teams to the 10 it had in becoming the largest conference known to humankind.

The WAC is so large that after dividing into divisions, it subdivided into groups of four, each called a “quadrant,” a word that so much reminded of a freshman algebra flashback that the conference has banned the word.

Join the WAC, see the world?

“It’s a travel agent’s dream,” WAC spokesman Dan Willis said.

The WAC is so spread out that the University of Hawaii could easier travel to Tokyo than to Houston, where Hawaii will one day--but not this season--have to play Rice.

The downside to upsizing? There are 16 teams in the WAC but it has very few bowl options with only Cotton, Holiday and Copper tie-ins. The conference is eligible for only one of the at-large Alliance bids, with Notre Dame pegged for the other.

Bottom line: The WAC starts each season with roughly 80% of its membership having no shot at going to a bowl.

If all that isn’t confusing enough, there’s a new league to contend with, Conference USA, which begins football this season with six teams--Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Southern Mississippi and Tulane--and high hopes.