Santoro: Money grab turns MW football into convoluted mess

Sports Fodder:

Get ready for the most convoluted, compromised, confusing and contrived college football season in the nearly three decades of the Mountain West.

Mountain West football, as we’ve known it the last decade or so, was simple, clear, precise and pure. The dozen teams in the conference were divided into two competitive six-team divisions with each team playing eight league games. The two division winners met in the league title game. It was so simple even a sportswriter could understand it.

The changes, though, started last year, subtly and innocently enough, when the two-division format was scrapped. All 12 teams were lumped into one giant, bloated, meaningless blob of mediocre football. The format, by the way, produced UNLV in its title game, for goodness’ sake.

Last year, though, was just the beginning of the changes. The changes for this fall are not so subtle and innocent, so much so that you’ll barely be able to recognize Mountain West football. It is now a hodge-podge, contrived money grab that will leave your head spinning.

The dozen teams, which remain in one bloated mess, will be joined by two leftover artists (Washington State and Oregon State) from the conference formerly known as the Pac-12.

“Joined,” unfortunately, is too strong a term for this artificial union. Think Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. Washington State and Oregon State, the two teams the rest of the Pac-12 left for dead, are not official members of the Mountain West. Not yet, at least. It just looks and smells that way.

But your eyes and nose deceive you which, of course, is the point of the Mountain West’s scheme. The deception and sleight of hand involves Washington State playing eight games against Mountain West teams and Oregon State playing seven this year.

But — and here is where the deception comes in — none of those games will count in the Mountain West standings and those two vagabond programs are not allowed to play in the Mountain West title game.

Washington State will play more games (eight) against Mountain West teams than any other league team and Oregon State will play just as many (seven) as each of the dozen official Mountain West teams. But all of those games are considered as meaningful (as far as the Mountain West is concerned) as a non-league game against say, Troy or Eastern Washington.

So, yes, we could have Washington State going 8-0 against Mountain West teams and Oregon State going 7-0 while we watch, for example, two teams playing in the Mountain West title game with two or three losses against Mountain West teams.

If that happens, well, we will have to call the Mountain West the conference formerly known as legitimate.

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But don’t blame the Mountain West for coming up with this goofy schedule this year. Everybody in college football is simply winging it now as the money grab overwhelms the sport.

The Mountain West is unashamedly and not-so-subtly bending over backward and compromising the integrity of its 2024 season with the intention of convincing Washington State and Oregon State to jump officially into its skinny arms.

Why Washington State and Oregon State haven’t done exactly that already is confusing and says all you need to know about the Mountain West. But it also might finally explain why the rest of the Pac-12 conveniently threw them out the car door on the highway last year.

Yes, Oregon State and Washington State, when all is said and done, are simply road kill that has yet to be shoveled off the highway. That is the best the Mountain West can do, and the Mountain West is the best Oregon State and Washington State can do.

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Geography and rivalries, the two things that always made college football special and worth caring about, have been obliterated to unrecognizable fragments by dollar signs. College football, like it or not, is just a reality television show now. The sport has no true meaning or purpose anymore except, of course, to facilitate tailgate parties, entice cheerleaders to go outdoors, coax boosters to part with their money to help buy quarterbacks and linebackers, fill television programming schedules and make players, coaches and athletic directors rich.

Loyalty is now a one-way street in college football, and it starts and ends with the fans. Fans are made to feel guilty if they don’t help pay for quarterbacks, linebackers and defensive ends. It’s the fans’ responsibility to make their favorite college football program healthy and successful.

Athletic directors are now just fundraisers. Coaches are just glorified used car salesmen. Players are just hired hands that move in with the highest bidder. And all of them simply look at fans as walking, talking, gullible dollar signs.

If that’s enough to help you buy season tickets, then go right ahead and write those checks.

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It will be interesting to see who blinks first in this Michael Jackson-Lisa Marie Presley fake marriage between the Mountain West and the two surviving members of the Pac-12.

Yes, it is not yet a marriage, fake or real. It’s just a first date with a lot of flirting and awkward moments of silence with the hope of someday becoming a marriage.

Will it be Oregon State and Washington State that gives in and joins the Mountain West? Or will Oregon State and Washington State entice some disillusioned Mountain West members that the once-proud Pac-12 can still exist even though everyone else knows that it is indeed fool’s gold?

Oregon State and Washington State have legally retained the Pac-12 name for the next two years. They need at least five more members in those two years to become a legitimate conference and keep the Pac-12 name.

Which Mountain West schools would likely join a new Pacific Coast Conference? How about Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Jose State? That would give the new league a definite California flavor, reminding everyone of the good old Pac-12 days. Boise State and Colorado State with their healthy budgets and always-inflated dreams would also be attractive to a new Pac-12.

That would leave the Mountain West with seven leftover schools, led by Nevada and UNLV, along with Utah State, New Mexico, Air Force, Hawaii and Wyoming. It that a conference that would convince you, as a Wolf Pack fan, to part with part of your paycheck?

You don’t have to answer that right now. But the hope, if you are a Wolf Pack supporter, should be that Nevada and UNLV would be attractive enough for Oregon State and Washington State to include in their raid on Mountain West schools. The other acceptable scenario is for Oregon State and Washington State to come to grips with reality and simply make the Mountain West a highly competitive 14-team league.

So, stay tuned to this reality show. The future of the Wolf Pack is hanging in the balance.

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It was nice to see Wolf Pack defensive back Emany Johnson rewarded for all of his hard work last year.

Johnson, who struggled in anonymity his first four years in the program, blossomed last fall for the 2-10 Wolf Pack to lead the team with 100 tackles. His reward was a free agent contract with the Dallas Cowboys last week after not getting drafted over the weekend.

Johnson, simply because the Wolf Pack was an awful team last year, didn’t get enough credit for what he did last season. He became just the ninth Wolf Pack player with 100 or more tackles since 2012.

Even more importantly, his 72 solo tackles last season are the most by any Pack player since DeShone Myles had 90 in 1997. The most unassisted tackles since 1997 by a Pack player before Johnson this year was 68 by Albert Rosette and Duke Williams, both in 2012.

Imagining the Wolf Pack defense, a unit that allowed 33.4 points a game, without Johnson’s hard work is frightening.

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New Wolf Pack football coach Jeff Choate promised at his introductory press conference that the Pack will run the ball effectively this season.

Hopefully that means the Pack will turn out its first 1,000-yard rusher since James Butler (1,336 yards) in 2016.

This now seven-year streak of no 1,000-yard rushers is the longest in Pack history since Wayne Ferguson became the school’s first 1,000-yard rusher in 1977 (1,128 yards). This is the same program that once had three 1,000-yard rushers in one season (Vai Taua, Colin Kaepernick, Luke Lippincott in 2009).

Ferguson, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior fullback who redshirted his freshman year at UNLV in 1974 when his future Wolf Pack head coach Chris Ault was a Rebels assistant, came to the Pack after playing a season at Monterey (Calif.) Junior College.

After rushing for 143 yards against Santa Clara in 1977, Ferguson said, “Their cornerbacks started calling me turkey. One of them hit me at the goal line and called me punk. That got me mad.”

Ferguson was part of a backfield in 1977 that also included freshman Frank Hawkins. Hawkins had 486 yards in 1977 and then went on to become the Pack’s all-time leading rusher with 5,333 career yards. He had 1,445 yards in 1978 to break Ferguson’s short-lived record. He followed that with 1,683 in 1979 and 1,719 in 1980.