The University of Idaho football team moved up from I-AA with Boise State in 1996, but since then their fortunes have wildly diverged. Now Boise State is wedging its way into the BCS (just as it ceases to exist) while Idaho is in real danger of having no alternative than going back down to I-AA.
The Vandals are in the middle of a WAC-tastrophe. Idaho’s home conference has been pillaged by the Mountain West (again) and the Sun Belt, leaving it holding the bag with New Mexico State.
With just about nothing to lose, the university’s president, Duane Nellis, took a shot at the 800-pound television network in the room: “As you well know TV networks like ESPN are now running major college athletic affiliations not the NCAA.” His whole letter is at the link.
It’s not the first time someone has openly said that. Remember when Boston College’s athletics director said the ACC added Pittsburgh and Syracuse because “ESPN told us what to do” and then had to retract the statement?
I’m in the middle of reading Those Guys Have All the Fun, a history of ESPN with interviews from the people who were there. In 30 years, the network has gone from begging the NCAA to let it carry basketball games to determining structural components of college athletics. It is, to be blunt, a little scary how much power it wields.
Why am I bringing up a quote from the president of the University of Idaho on a website concerned about Iowa? It should be pretty obvious: Iowa State has been in practically the same boat two years in a row. “The key variable for adding new teams is immediate media market,” Nellis wrote. That won’t change if and when Conferencepocalypse III rears its ugly head.