When it launched in 2006, the Mtn. was the first of its kind: A college sports network dedicated solely to a conference. Last month, the owners of the network — CBS Sports Network and NBC Universal — announced that they will shut down the Mtn. on May 31.
So what happened? Mountain West Conference officials are — in part — blaming realignment. Utah, Brigham Young and Texas Christian have left the league, and Boise State and San Diego State are Big East-bound after this season. But the departures are only a small part of the story.
The demise of the Mtn. rests with league officials and member teams, who bungled a terrific idea from the start by underestimating the challenge of getting the network distributed.
Consider this your last warning. Don't be surprised to see Craig James trying to get back in the broadcast booth this fall because his bid to become a U.S. Senator from Texas is all but finished.
James, a Republican, announced last December that he was stepping down from his ESPN analyst job to run for the seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. The primary is May 29 — three weeks from today — and polling indicates that James is losing badly.
James is drawing only 7% of the projected vote. Frontrunner David Dewhurst is at 38%, followed by Ted Cruz at 26% and Tom Leppert at 8%.
Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger, writing in the Wall Street Journal, says enough is enough. College football serves no academic purpose, therefore it should be banned.
Bissinger writes: "The players themselves don't benefit, exploited by a system in which they don't receive a dime of compensation. The average student doesn't benefit, particularly when football programs remain sacrosanct while tuition costs show no signs of abating as many governors are slashing budgets to the bone."
He adds that according to the NCAA, 43% of Division I-A teams lost money, this at a time when tuition is skyrocketing.
A study suggests that an increase in winning by a football team has a big downside. It leads to a sharp decrease in academic donations to a university.
The study by Gi-Yong Koo, a doctoral student in sports management at Arkansas, and his professor, Stephen Dittmore, examines the winning percentage of a school's football and basketball teams and compares it to annual athletic and academic giving.
As one would expect, winning teams boost gifts to athletics. In football, every additional 1.5 victories increases athletics donations by $6.7 million. But those 1.5 victories are more than offset by a decrease of $16.4 million in academic gifts.
The Western Athletic Conference's days appear to be numbered, but there could be a big reward for teams that hang until the end. Right now, there are only two football playing members for the 2013 season — Idaho and New Mexico State. As Jason Appleford points out, this could set up a banner season for Idaho.
"A few tough road games, but the Vandals should be competitive next year," he writes on his twitter page.
Last week, the WAC lost Utah State and San Jose State to the Mountain West, Louisiana Tech and Texas San Antonio to Conference USA and Texas State to the Sun Belt. Texas San Antonio and Texas State departed before playing even one game as members of the league.
To make matters worse, longtime WAC commissioner Karl Benson bailed in February and became commish of the Sun Belt.
You might remember Jeff Schemmel. He resigned as San Diego State athletic director in 2009 after an investigation by the school found that Schemmel requested reimbursement for expenses made for an extramarital affair in Alabama.
Schemmel is now managing director, college division of JMI Sports, an athletics consulting firm which was co-founded by John Moores. Moores is being forced to sell the San Diego Padres because of he recently got a divorce. His ex-wife claimed in court documents that Moores had an affair during their marriage.
