Just Another Blasé Week, I Guess

  This is somewhat of a rivalry week. The Yankees and Red Sox are engaged in four game series in New York. And a number of former conference and in-state battles are on tap. 

Which is ironic about the fact that Oregon State and Washington State, the former Pac-12 survivors (the Pac-2 as they are sarcastically called even if it is numerically correct), have raided the Mountain West Conference with the war chest that they have with the release of the other members from the once-glorious Power 5 conference. All in the name of again becoming relevant and rejoining the big boys already at the table—the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12. With a deadline of 2026 to get it done.

When the one-time scheduling agreement with the Mountain West dovetailed, I kind of had a feeling that something else was going on. Whether it was the arrogance of OSU and WSU or the attempted circling of the wagons by the Mountain West, the defection of four schools may be a preliminary shot to more activity.

To be allowed in the now-expanded College Football playoffs, a conference must have a minimum of eight members schools. Adding Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Fresno State isn’t exactly glamorous as big time programs go. But it works fine regionally. 

What will be more problematic is getting a good network package for the games, which will begin in 2025-26. And finding those two more schools willing to abandon their present location. 

There are rumblings that California-Berkeley and Stanford might have second thoughts about their insane merger with the ACC given how it will impact their teams going across the country and the costs involved. That might make sense and could peak the interest of the TV moguls. Yet they signed the ACC grant of rights, which binds them to their new home. Until 2036. Unless Florida State and Clemson somehow escape the ACC as they would like and find a home elsewhere (SEC?) It was the hope of the Beavers and Cougars that the ACC could form a Western division with them if the unhappy duo exited. No interest whatsoever from the ACC. 

More likely names floated are Air Force, UTSA, Rice, Memphis, Tulane, North Texas and even South Florida. Except that the American Athletic Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti, a former Rutgers Athletic Director and a savvy media man, has gotten Army and Navy into his league and would be open to Air Force joining its service academy brethren. 

The Mountain West could also lose Nevada and UNLV if they could leave in tandem to the Pac-12. But there are replacements for them in FCS schools in Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota—even the entry fee to move from FCS to FBS is $5 million.

Also, basketball schools like Gonzaga and St. Mary’s might be interested in becoming part of a bigger and better West Coast conference the the WCC. Exposure and money have a way of enticing. 

All this wheeling and dealing isn’t over. UConn made a serious effort to become part of the Big 12, but found little interest. The same thing happened to the Huskies with the ACC when it expanded. As much as basketball is king in the Nutmeg State, its football program is in purgatory. 

Would regionalization make sense? Of course. How to go about making it happen is too complicated with the money, bowl games, playoffs and storied alliances. 

In my lifetime, I have seen much evolve by way of conference adding and subtracting schools. Heck, Denver, Detroit, George Washington, Hofstra, Marquette, Vermont and Boston University are among a list of 59 schools that used to play football. The ACC was formed as an outgrowth of the Southern Conference. 

Which it is why I am sad when I don’t see Maryland and Virginia play regularly like they are this weekend. Or Oregon and Oregon State meeting in the third week instead of at the end of the season. Ditto Washington and Washington State. Oklahoma State plays at Tulsa—the only school left to face in-state now that Oklahoma is in the SEC. 

Forgive me. I am a lonely purist longing for memories that are long forgotten. Such is the nature of the beast known as the FBS. 

To temper my sadness, I was fortunate to be able to walk less than ten minutes from my house to see our local high school, Jonathan Dayton, host my alma mater, Highland Park. Two small schools that nearly ended football forever but found ways to have it survive. Dayton, my children’s school, doesn’t have the storied past that the HPHS Owls have. 

My exposure to high school football came in the late 1950’s when I hung around the team practices on the dusty field by the school which doubled as a softball and Midget League field where I would later play and practice. A new and loud coach named Jay Dakelman was molding some pretty good player into stars. 

I followed his teams from the temporary stands put up in Johnson Park alongside the Raritan River, to the new field born out of the woods nearer to the school, adjacent to the baseball field where I toiled in summer Junior League action. 

Look, I had no business being on a football field. Yet I practiced freshman year, repeatedly getting whomped by bigger players (I know I suffered one concussion from a hit by a friend’s brother who was 60 pounds heavier than me because my head hurt for days afterwards) and was part of the kickoff return team on our freshman squad. Ironically, the small squad HPHS fielded had a few kids definitely my size in uniform. I worry for their safety. 

Mercifully, Jay moved me over to statistics. Which I excelled at and which led me to a seat at my desk at home on Saturdays after games, compiling in minute detail what had transpired. That led me to Sunday morning doughnuts with the coaches after I delivered my neatly handwritten data, and being a part of the next week’s game plan. 

It was pure fun for me, and it made me a part of the team. And my senior year, that team went undefeated. They were that good, although the Owls trailed Carteret at home 20-7 at the half before storming back to win 21-20 after a halftime tongue-lashing by Jay that was motivational if not fearful.

Well, Owls faithful, we crushed the Bulldogs. It wasn’t the Bulldogs we hated—that would be Metuchen. This is a new rivalry based on school size and scheduling cooperation among Union, Middlesex, Somerset and some West Jersey schools. So I may get to see this game another time in the near future. 

I enjoyed being on the small bleachers which were for the visiting team’s fans. As halftime wound down, I also chatted with a HPHS legend, Joe Policastro, who was the star quarterback in the late 1950’s and remains active on the sidelines after he retired as Dakelman’s successor. I knew him as Jo Jo in his days on the gridiron. He was my freshman baseball coach and Driver’s Ed teacher. And as an umpire, he threw me out of a Junior League game for flinging my bat at the pitcher who purposely threw at my head and then laughed (I was deservedly suspended for a game). 

I can identify with fan bases who want to preserve the old rivalries. Still, maybe this lopsided high school contest augers in a new era of playing similar schools which might last for a very long time. Just like the craziness going on at the collegiate level. Who knows?

Oh, and by the way, Aaron Judge broke his 16 game home run drought with a grand slam, propelling the Yankees to a come-from-behind victory over the hated Red Sox. Which was the cherry on my nostalgia. 

Just another blasé week, I guess.