2010 Football Report, Week 1

Big excitement for Ada folks this Friday night. While driving from Findlay to Ada on I-75 after dinner and shopping, my wife and I passed the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. My wife had never heard of the vehicle, and I had only seen it on TV. Ohio may really be the Heart of It All, since we have been visited by the Wienermobile.

Other big excitement--the opening game of the 2010 football season for Ada High. I was following their game on radio when I passed the Wienermobile, and it sounded like Ada might win. By midway in the second quarter, the Ada Bulldogs led their county rivals from Hardin Northern 49-0 on the way to a 69-7 opening blowout. New quarterback Konnor Baker threw 6 touchdown passes in the victory. Go Dogs!

College football begins next weekend, so those who follow this blog for college football news must wait another week. Ohio Northern will play the first Division III game of the season next Thursday afternoon at home in Ada.

College Conference Rearrangement: After much summer speculation over whether the Big 12 would be dismantled and whether this year would mean the advent of the 16 team super-conferences, there was actually little change in the BCS conferences. Nebraska, miffed at the influence of Texas in the Big 12 and seeking greater TV revenue, will move from the Big 12 to being the 12th team in the the Big 10 in 2011. (Twelve team conferences are allowed to have divisions and to offer the TV networks a championship football game between the two division winners. The Pac 10 (or 12) and the Big Ten become big winners here at the expense of the Big 12.) I found it interesting that the Big Ten chose Nebraska rather than Missouri or its other candidates--Texas, Pitt, Rutgers, etc. In choosing Nebraska, the Big Ten has chosen to remain faithful to its midwest roots, skipping the opportunity to try to penetrate Texas or the New York TV market via Rutgers and/or Syracuse. In choosing Nebraska, the Big Ten also showed that football power and economics are more important than other sports or academics, because Missouri is probably stronger in basketball than Nebraska and is also probably a stronger academic institution.

Texas is an interesting player in all of this. Both to keep its rivalry with Texas A & M and for in-state political reasons, it will be difficult for Texas to move to another conference without taking A & M, at minimum, with it. Apparently, the Pac 10 was interesting in allying with Texas, but Texas legislators were allegedly trying to force whatever conference that took Texas to also take Texas A & M, Texas Tech, and Baylor. The Pac 10 wanted Colorado rather than Baylor, so a deal with Texas was not possible. So the Pac 10 will become a 12-team league by 2012 by picking up Utah from the Mountain West Conference in 2011 and Colorado from the Big 12 in 2012. (Numerical conundrums are rampant because of these changes. The Big Ten will continue to be called the Big Ten despite having 12 teams. Perhaps the Big 12 will continue to be the Big 12 despite having only ten teams.)

The conference that has seen the most change, and the most serious threat, has been the Mountain West Conference. The Mountain West, not more than 20 years old, includes Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming, San Diego State, Texas Christian, New Mexico, and Nevada (Las Vegas). Until this year, its consistently prominent members were Utah and Brigham Young. When Utah announced that it would move to the Pac 10, BYU began to consider its options, since Utah has been BYU's big rival for many years. After Utah's announcement, the Mountain West need to act to ensure its own survival, and so it added Boise State. Boise State (the school with the blue football turf) has been phenomenally successful in football in the relatively weak Western Athletic Conference, and so the Mountain West will be a step up for Boise State. When BYU began to look at leaving the MWC to be independent in football and joining the WAC for other sports, the conference acted again, adding two more WAC schools, Fresno State and Nevada (Reno). The Mountain West's strategy seemed both to strengthen itself and to limit BYU's options by nearly destroying the WAC, the conference to which BYU would move. BYU's plan had to change. BYU ultimately decided to become independent for football and to join the West Coast Conference, a league primarily known for basketball whose best known sports school is basketball power Gonzaga. The Mountain West has lost two of its most prominent schools, but has emerged intact and strong through its additions. The big loser in all of this has been the Western Athletic Conference, which will be left with only six schools (Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Utah State, New Mexico State, and San Jose State) and with long and expensive trips required for competition. It will be interesting to see if the WAC can survive at all.

Bad banners: One of our neighbors has taken to flying a University of Nebraska flag on the front of her home. Ada does not have strong land use laws, or I'm sure that this eyesore would probably have been removed by now. Since Nebraska will be joining the Big Ten, this banner will also be an eyesore not just to me but also to the fans of Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, and the schools that most people around her root for. I have tried to find some positive value to this flag, and I may have succeeded. Since Colorado is on its way to the Pac 10 (12?), it does serve as a reminder that in the future, Colorado (Pac 12) could face Nebraska (Big 10) in the Rose Bowl.