The TCU tennis and cross country coaches might be shaking their heads over their administration’s money grab decision to transfer all sports to the Big East starting in 2012, but the Air Force Academy doesn’t seem to mind too much.
Air Force Academy Superintendent and a former assistant football coach Lt. Gen. Mike Gould issued a bland statement of support for TCU and the Mountain West Conference’s future.
“We feel very confident about the long-term sustainability of the Mountain West Conference, especially with the upcoming additions of Boise State, Fresno State and University of Nevada-Reno to the membership of the Mountain West family.”
Air Force always plays well against college football’s elite, giving Oklahoma all they could handle earlier this season, but Gould’s football background allows him to understand that it would be tough for a service academy to constantly keep up in a super conference. And if TCU, Utah and BYU all stayed along with the additions of Boise State and Nevada, that’s exactly what the MWC was about to become.
Director of Athletics Dr. Hans Mueh added his own blah comment saying “TCU has been a valued member of the Mountain West Conference and we wish them well as they move on to the Big East. We’re confident that the Mountain West Conference will continue to thrive moving forward.”
And so it is. College presidents will continue to pretend college football is not a business while they continue to alter traditional conferences in order to get the biggest television contract possible and then tell the public a playoff system is impossible because it would be unfair to the “student-athletes.” Someone should explain that to the TCU tennis and cross country players as they add up more frequent flyer miles then an international salesman flying to games with their time-honored rivals Villanova and Syracuse.
Oh, the pageantry of college sports.
