Having fun yet?

This has been an interesting season for college football and not necessarily good interesting. For someone that was a big fan of the Pac 8, 10 and 12 it has been a big adjustment to the Pac 2. But it looks like the Pac whatever number they end up with is on the rise. And for you purists that don’t think that Gonzaga is a good fit for the conference just check out how many full arenas there will be during basketball season when the Zags are on the road. They will also be a good draw for the television fans.

For the four Pac 12 teams that departed for the Big 10 (18) only Oregon has fared real well especially after defeating Ohio State Saturday night. That was a highly entertaining game. Yes, I channel changed between UO-OSU and WSU and Fresno State.

I was rooting for a good game but have no love for the Buckeyes and not much for Oregon after their departure from the Pac 12. The Ducks have a favorable schedule for the rest of the season since they aren’t playing Penn State or the surprising Indiana Hoosiers. They have to go to Michigan and Wisconsin to play two beatable teams for the Ducks. Starting out his season the Ducks struggled against Idaho before dropping the Vandals by 10 scoring a TD in the 4th quarter. And they were in a tussle against Boise State before kicking a late field goal to beat the Broncos by 3 at home. To start the season the most trouble they incurred was against the state of Idaho.

The UW Huskies are 4-0 at home but 0-2 on the road and 0-1 at Lumen Field in Seattle {WSU win}. Do you remember how bad Iowa’s offense was last year? Even though the Hawkeyes won ten games last year they had problems scoring TDs. Their offense was so bad that Head Coach Kirk Ferentz fired his son who was offensive coordinator. I’m not sure if the offense is any better but last Saturday Iowa drubbed the UW Huskies 40-16. I’m sure playing at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time was a bit difficult and these road trips aren’t going to be fun but think of all the money the school is bringing in.

The two teams that brought the Pac 12 to its demise, USC and UCLA are having their own issues. UCLA is 0-4 in conference and 1-5 overall and USC is struggling to close out games and are 1-3 in conference and 3-3 overall. The Trojans lost to Penn State in overtime on Saturday allowing the Nittany Lions to score late and tie the game. USC was driving for a late game field goal when their QB overthrew his tall receiver and the ball was picked off by a PSU Safety, Penn State would kick an OT field goal to get the win. As far as UCLA is concerned they are just a team that is not very good and it’s doubtful they will get better very soon.

There was a time that I would hope that these teams would beat a Big Ten team but since they want to play with the Big Boys I couldn’t care less.

The future of NCAA football looks like it could be a problem as the thought of a mega conference could make watching football less fun. Fortunately I’m to the age that I don’t care as much. I still miss the Nebraska-Oklahoma game that was played on Thanksgiving day and so many other huge rivalry games that aren’t on the schedules.

It was just a few years ago when the college presidents didn’t want an expanded playoff because the athletes would be out of class so much. Fast forward to today and you can see how much these long plane trips are also taking student athletes out of the classroom. No problem since all of their class work and lectures can be accessed from a lap top computer, right?

I think we know why the school presidents didn’t want a playoff. There wasn’t enough money coming back into the coffers but with the big TV deals from expanded conferences the kids will be just fine and their grades will reflect that. At some point in time we’ll have to figure out who is having the most fun.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].