August 26, 2012.

High School football began Friday night with Ada's Bulldogs dining on Hardin Northern 55-0.  New QB Mason Acheson threw 3 TD passes, and running back Kellen Decker added 185 yards rushing and 4 TDs.  According to observers, Hardin Northern only suited up 19 players against the juggernaut.  Apparently, Ada's first four touchdown drives averages more than 60 yards and also took an average of less than 60 seconds.  We expect much more challenge once Ada begins conference play.

College football begins Thursday night with Vanderbilt.  Conferences have been reconstructed and rivalries have disappeared.  Texas vs. Texas A & M?  Mizzou vs. Kansas?  The rivals are now in different conferences and so these rivalry games may not be played again.  There is something tragic about the death of rivalries that have taken many years to build and that have been at the heart of universities' football traditions.  At least Colorado and Colorado State still begin their seasons with their annual rivalry game.

Another sad note is the imminent death of the WAC as a football conference.  The Western Athletic Conference has a long history of good football.  A few years ago, it was a super conference that encompassed just about all of the schools in the current Mountain West Conference, among others.  Unfortunately, the super WAC proved to be unmanagable, and schools fled in all directions.  Instead, now we have a super SEC, and that conference, I am sure, will prove to be quite managable, wealthy, and unimaginably powerful.  

Here's to the players and coaches at Penn State.  Let's hope that they can maintain some semblance of quality play amid the wreckage of their near "death penalty" experience.