BYU Fan For A Night? But It Won't Last.

Jimmy Buffett wrote a song, "He's a Frenchman for the Night" about being in Paris. And I guess for just a few minutes tonight, I was rooting for, "The Evil Empire" to win that basketball game. I was a Cougar Fan for the night.


But being a Ute, it wasn't for BYU's sake. It was for the Mountain West Conference, every school who isn't in the BCS, and everyone who doesn't live in the Eastern Time Zone.

I was rooting for San Diego State, too. And that school stinks in every possible way. If you don't believe me, just attend a football game in their three quarter empty stadium and listen to the hundreds of fans they have, bad mouth you for being from Utah.

We get the short end of the stick out here in the west, and I don't expect it to be a whole lot better when we move to the PAC 12. We're still in a, "fly over" state. We don't really count. Most of the population of this country lives in the Eastern Time Zone, and since TV is all about ratings, it will always cater to them. Why the hell do you think the Big East got 10 teams into the NCAA Tournament? You think they are really that good?

And why do such shitty football conferences like the Big East (sorry West Virginia. I love ya, but you couldn't beat Wyoming consistently if you had to play in the MWC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference get BCS births? Because it's about TV sets, not quality of the game. Even the SEC is SO overrated. For every time Alabama is ranked #1 (and still loses to Utah in the Sugar Bowl) Vanderbilt and Kentucky don't win six games. BETWEEN them. But they have a lot of TV sets.

So tonight, the folks out here in the MWC had a chance to put a finger in the eye of the eastern media, and everyone who thinks civilization stops at the Hudson River, and lives in New York, or Bristol, Connecticut. But it was not to be.

Was UConn a better basketball team than SDSU? Did they play a tougher schedule? No. But they kept their composure when SDSU did NOT. Biggest game in school history and you guys get TWO Technical Fouls? Really? You can't keep it together any better than that?

And I almost feel sorry for, That School Down South. Biggest game they have ever played, too. And it kind of looked like everybody was just thinking, "It's JIMMER TIME!" and figured he'd carry the team to victory. Especially since they beat Florida last year. But at one point, "The Jimmer" was 8 for 21, and it was pretty obvious that they put too much to carry in his backpack. They still had a chance to win it, but in the end they were one, tall, athletic center short of what Florida could offer.

It wasn't, Jimmer's fault. I kind of feel sorry for him. By all accounts he's a good kid.

But as a Ute, this feeling won't last.

Now that we are going in different directions athletically, as we always have academically, I don't care what happens to them. No matter how well they do from here on out, in ANY sport, it just doesn't matter. No one cares. It's like they don't exist on a national level. They will still get a lot of local coverage, and their football games, at least a few of them will be on ESPN, but who cares?

If the best you can do for a winning season is the Kraft Foods Fight Hunger Bowl, and that's the LAST shot at a Bowl for the Utes? You're not really a player on the national level. You're kind of like "Michigan Directional" ( Western, Eastern, Central, Michigan) or, Florida Directional (Southern, Central, Atlantic). You might have a good team once in a while, but you won't be going to a Sugar Bowl anytime soon.

So this was it. The last time the Cougars had a shot to be a player on a National level. It will never happen again. And I have to admit I was kind of rooting for them. But more for the folks in Laramie and Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs, and Albuquerque than the folks in Provo. Those folks made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. For a very long time.