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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
Mountain West pond
could be too big for UHON Thursday, in the midst of all this conference upheaval, I wrote a column saying that I agreed with June Jones that perhaps it didn't really matter which league ended up as Hawaii's football home base.
Since then the responses have ranged from positive ("Did you apply for the AD job?") to vehement disagreement ("You should know better. You're supposed to be sane. A writer outside of the Animal House. You're not supposed to bust out of the oversized cake or wear the hat with a funny fan. ... Um, eh, bra, we need you to keep all these frat boys in line").
On a side note, many of my readers are nuts.
But I have been thinking about this these past few days, as have we all. Maybe it does matter, but not for any of the reasons that have been previously mentioned. Maybe, deep down, in its heart of hearts, UH doesn't really want to join the Mountain West Conference as much as we thought. As much as it thinks.
Now, I have been a critic of the MWC, but I would love to see Hawaii in the Mountain West. The schedule would be a lot more fun. The conference race would be more intriguing. The fans would love it. I'm betting attendance would go up.
It would be a better college football experience.
You can see why Evan Dobelle and Herman Frazier may have been hitting "redial" for the past week.
The Mountain West may not be a great conference. It may not even be a good conference. But it is a real conference.
And, surprise! That's the "but." That may be why Hawaii may really want to go another way.
In the Mountain West, Hawaii would be one of nine teams (or one of 10, or 12). And the last team, the one that was cut before.
In the MWC, Hawaii is taken down a notch just by joining up.
There would be no more strutting around, feeling superior, dissing the pack. UH is in a position of power in this WAC, and has certainly taken advantage of that fact. Has certainly enjoyed it.
Football competition? Fresno State is still living off that one good year it had, but really hasn't been the same since. And Boise State? All the Broncos do is win. But UH can afford to ignore that, because the nation does, too.
Somehow, UH is still the big dog. Hawaii can declare it gets better ESPN numbers, point to its impressive NFL Draft record. It can make at least a claim of having a national presence.
Meanwhile, the Mountain West may have fallen, but that old WAC was a tough league. If BYU gets better, it could be again. If the middle and lower MWC teams are just 5 percent better than their WAC counterparts, you're in a dogfight. A few November days in Laramie and Jones might look a little more like Bob Wagner than he or UH had ever imagined.
That's not a bad thing. That's college football. Nobody said it was easy. Those old WAC wins really meant something.
It would be pretty cool to capture that old feeling again.
But is that what UH really wants?
This current Hawaii regime is doing pretty well as a big fish in a small pond.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
