That Will Do

US vs. Mexico, Old Guys Edition

Over 18,000 showed up at the Sun Bowl Saturday night for an exhibition of ex-Selecciones (national team soccer players) made up of great names from both Mexico and the United States.

Household names like Jorge Campos, Luis Hernandez and others dotted Team Mexico's roster.

For the U.S., the pro-Mexico crowd would be hard-pressed to come up with names other than Marcelo Balboa, who still has the hair -- facial and otherwise -- that made him so recognizable during his career.

For me, though, it was a treat to see former national teamers like Paul Caligiuri and Ted Eck and Fernando Clavijo -- the first generation of Americans upon which US Soccer has built a successive string of World Cup qualifications and a whole first division domestic league (Major League Soccer).

And, love or hate either side, before players like Caligiuri, Clavijo, Eck and Balboa the U.S.-Mexico rivalry did not exist -- it was their play that lifted American soccer and made this THE rivalry in North America and the Caribbean.

US Soccer -- and, in certain respects, Mexican soccer -- owes this bunch a huge debt of gratitude.

Here's some video from Saturday night -- with a decidedly pro-U.S. touch.

Simply put, below is the man who started it all...Paul Caligiuri, the defender whose opportunistic goal in 1989 put the United States into its first World Cup in 40 years.

Though the US was schooled in Italia '90, Caligiuri's goal provided the momentum the whole of US Soccer needed. 

For one, it meant the US wouldn't have to wait for their automatic qualification to the World Cup as tourney hosts in 1994. Beating Trinidad & Tobago, 1-0, on Caligiuri's goal meant the US earned their passage -- a passage that provided the spark to elevate American soccer to the top of CONCACAF, to qualify for every World Cup since and to create its own domestic league, Major League Soccer. 

Not bad.

  

Former US National Teamer Thomas Dooley started his career in the Bundesliga, but as his father was a member of the US military, Dooley is also an American citizen -- something US Soccer was more than happy to take advantage of when he decided to play for the US National Team. 

Now a resident of California, he pronounces his current home state much like its governor. But his contributions to US Soccer are great. 

Wonderful to have this classy veteran in El Paso.

 

Mexico's Marco Antonio Ruiz scores the first of two goals in a 2-0 Mexico victory over the U.S. in a game of former national team stars in the Sun Bowl.

  

This, unfortunately, epitomized the night for the U.S...

 

Tiger Time Traveling

"Say, fella, how long will it take to get to El Paso?

"We Memphians are worried about getting to next year's conference tournament in time to see our cagers, see. Our Tigers are the bee's knees to us here, and we're a little sore that we have to travel to Timbuktu to see 'em play.

"I hear we'll see a lot of crazy zoot-suiters out there, too. Hope there aren't any dust-ups that get the flatfeet involved.

"By the way, is the sleeper car full?"

Hello, Memphesians. See, there are these crazy things called airplanes...

Yes, El Paso knows all too well how isolated it is. But the whining from Conference USA basketball's white knight on the banks of the Mississippi when the Sun City was awarded the 2011 C-USA Championship Tournament for basketball is a little too...much. 

Especially when Memphis columnists and sports talkers (tune into the Josh Pastner interview about 8:10 in) start listing the reasons why not, one of the biggest being that their city also had a bid; so why wouldn't the conference come back? 

This story was taken as gospel that a member of the El Paso coalition presenting the bid to host the tourney used an expletive to describe Memphis' bid, which was then beaten up in the Pastner interview as a reason to be sour.

Two bottom lines to this one. 

A) Simple Math: $1 million > $750,000. El Paso's bid was a quarter million bucks better than Memphis'.

B) Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky has said they want to spread the wealth when it comes to the conference tourney.

Memphis is yelping that the conference snubbed them because they've hired people to make the school's case for Big East membership.

Maybe, but c'mon, Memphis, you don't need to go any further than Point A above. El Paso did its homework to guarantee that C-USA will make its money.

If there is anti-Memphis bias, it might have a lot to do with C-USA recognizing that, with John Calipari gone, Memphis doesn't walk with quite the same swagger when it comes time to pick teams for the NCAA Tournament. 

Before UTEP ended Memphis' C-USA win streak at 64 games, the Tigers' dominance over the rest of the league was sad, but almost understandable. Calipari had taken the program national.

Now, especially after Memphis' fall from grace, a dominant Tigers team is bad for Conference USA. First UTEP, then SMU, then Houston beat Memphis -- the league can't step backward from that accomplishment without giving the impression that it lost traction.

Then the Memphis Commercial-Appeal's Geoff Calkins went and used the anarchy in our sister city as a frame of reference, making the point that Memphians used to murder in their headlines would feel right at home in the Borderland. 

He says he's won't insult El Paso for Juarez's problems -- except that he just did.

It is semi-understandable to hear people in other cities talk about the issue as it relates to their feelings of safety. The Oklahoman's Berry Tramel did so during OU's visit to the Sun Bowl.

They don't live here, which makes it oh, so easy to talk negatively about El Paso because of Juarez. 

And that's okay. Really.

It just means whoever uses the Juarez thing -- whether it's a full-on slap or off-speed -- renders their argument baseless. They haven't bothered to look under the hood of the issue, so how can their comparisons be taken seriously?

Nonetheless, El Pasoans can shout all they want that their's is America's second-safest big city and point to Memphis' ridiculous murder rate (20.5 per 100,000 people to El Paso's 2.8 in 2008, according to the FBI, in a city of similar size). But when Juarez is news across the globe, it tends to drown out any local noise.

This is, in part, why it is so wonderful that El Paso is getting another opportunity to put its best foot forward. Anytime this city gets a bully pulpit to counterbalance the international headlines -- Preach on, preachers!

By far, though, the loudest complaints have to do with El Paso being a dreary outpost in a faraway land.

Now, I'm not the first to bring up the wonders of air travel; but too many of us assume that our favorite link to the rest of the country, the beloved cattle car of the skies, Southwest Airlines, makes El Paso an easy reach for Tigers' fans.

Alas, SWA does not fly to Memphis! 

I know, I was just as surprised. Southwest flies to Lubbock but not to Memphis? Holy peanuts, Batman! How do you get to Buddy Holly without going through Elvis?

But all is not lost, Memphians. Continental has one-stop round-trip flights for $310 next March.

Book early, though. Something tells me the aircraft they use for this route might also be doing some business over farmland along the way, so I'd say seating might be a little tight. Gotta leave room for the pesticide, y'know.

It is pertinent to bring up the whole outpost thing, though, in a different way. Air travel is not easily accomplished for everyone. One of Memphis' draws is its location, which makes it a car trip for a number of C-USA teams and their fans.

Let's be honest, here. This tournament is all about El Paso. 

Which means if UTEP loses early, will anyone else bother to show up? Or will this be like the BOK Center in Tulsa this past March -- hearing nothing sneaker squeaks during games?

The tournament is coming here. It will be up to El Paso to recognize its opportunity to put that best foot forward.

The Expansion Clock Is Ticking, Like It or Not

The Big 10 can't just turn it off now. 

Conference commissioner Jim Delany may say the Big 10 has "an 11-month time frame" to talk expansion, but when perhaps the nation's most powerful conference and commissioner mentions the "E" word, there is no taking it back. Delany has set off college football's doomsday clock.

What conference wants to wait and see now? By bringing up the subject, the Big 10 has made this a big, red zit on the nose of college football. No one can ignore it and no one can leave it alone. It's too late.

Zap that bad boy or be prepared to deal with the mess.

Perhaps they know this. Perhaps they know the Big XII is chum for the sharks in either the Pac-10 or the SEC, ready to rip the best cuts of meat for themselves. 

Perhaps this allows alleged Big XII targets Nebraska and Missouri to leave without announcing it now, forcing them to pay fines for exiting early.

That would be devious. A conspiracy worthy of Goldfinger -- set off the bomb that lays waste to the worth of other conferences while yours grows more valuable.

But Jim Delany has long carried the reputation of being as close as you can get to a Bond villain without being a villain. 

He's no Dr. No. He's just looking out for Number One (or Number 1-1, as in the 11 teams in his conference).

Again, I reiterate that, if it's the Big XII that gets ripped to shreds, things could land sunny-side up for UTEP and Conference USA. 

Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State and maybe even Oklahoma State could be set adrift if Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma get a good offer from a hungry heavyweight conference.

And the Big XII might not be the only conference with some pretty good pickin's for enterprising buzzards. Interestingly, if the Pac-10 expands, it could be inviting Utah and maybe (MAYBE) Brigham Young, too, which cuts the heart out of a conference for which the Miners have long had a jones to join.

Perhaps the Mountain West comes to Mohammed.

C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky has already acknowledged the conference looked seriously at expanding to 16, but its school presidents nixed the idea. 

That might have been just the right move -- especially if Banowsky keeps his Texas-centric vision. 

This is the man who moved conference HQ from Chicago, IL, to Las Colinas, the Dallas business suburb. He has invited SMU, Houston, Rice and UTEP to be a part of C-USA. He and Miners athletic director Bob Stull have seemed pretty tight since UTEP joined the league, as well.

If Banowsky is willing to release the east, UTEP could be in some heady company with no travel beyond the Mississippi river.

In the east, C-USA bellcow Memphis has made no secret about wanting to be a part of the Big East, which is already full up for basketball schools and has Notre Dame for everything but football. 

A conference shift could leave an opening for the Tigers, but they would drag a miserable football program into a league that doesn't have that strong a hold on its BCS standing even now. 

A Big 10 bite that included Rutgers and possibly Pitt really makes things shaky, but Memphis hoops would be in heaven, so they still wouldn't care.

All this said, I keep trying to get finished with a promised feature on Title IX, which, to me, could play a very important role in the future of not just college athletics, but specifically college football. 

A number of years ago when the College Football Association was making TV deals, before the BCS and the emergence of conferences as the big arbiters of those contracts, I speculated that football might become its own entity -- leaving athletic departments entirely, in part because of the strain of having to include football scholarships in gender equity equations.

I'm beginning to think with talk of superconferences and mega TV deals that the game is trending back that direction in some way, shape or form.

In the meantime, this is the second straight blog on conference realignment. Something tells me it won't be the last.

Who Kicks Ash in Conference Realignment?

Obscured vision. Loud explosions. A cloud you only hope isn't hiding unseen danger.

No, it's not an Icelandic volcano. It's an athletic one. But it could be one that benefits UTEP. Maybe.

Stick around -- I'll explain.

With word that the Big 10 has informally spoken to Nebraska, Missouri, Notre Dame and Rutgers about taking up residence with them, college football's vulcanized landscape is shifting again, dragging the rest of dependent athletic departments behind them.

To me, though the game remains the most meaningful, tradition-rich sport we have; college football makes an Eyjafjallajokul of itself more than other sports.

It is spewing ash that is simultaneously obscuring vision of its future and creating a no-fly zone, grounding all movement -- realignment, TV contract talks and more -- until the dust settles. 

Or until the whole thing blows its stack. And a full eruption is the prediction.

As excited as all of us media types get when a story this big is on the boil, it is bittersweet around these parts; for one, because I hate to see the game go through these changes. 

It screws up fans who lose their rivalries when schools move conference affiliation. It creates a Steinbrenneresque free agent's loyalty amongst leaguemates -- everyone loves everyone else until somebody can make more somewhere else.

And, maybe worst of all, it makes schools like UTEP the chubby kid playing musical chairs -- the Miners just don't have the speed to do anything other than wait and see if there's a spot left open somewhere when the music stops.

Sure, UTEP fans would love to get into the Mountain West. But what if TCU, Utah and BYU have bolted for the Pac-10 and/or the Big XII and the MWC becomes the WAC without its bell cow teams?

Or how about Conference USA with no Memphis or Houston, forced to invite some Sun Belt teams to fill out the roster? 

Yikes!

As sad as this is, it is also necessary as college football slims down, bulks up and becomes a bigger player for sports ad and cable subscription dollars. It is the nature of business. 

While pro leagues can make any changes they need to market and advertise their sport, college football is undervalued and over-burdened, carrying the extra weight of whole athletic programs.

Don't think that I'm advocating the hard business of college sports over the mission of education. Despite the jaded side of this, college football could never, ever turn into the NFL, mostly because a bigger bottom line still just pays for more endowed scholarships and better facilities for all student-athletes.

Nonetheless, small comfort for schools like UTEP that might well get doused with molten lava as conferences melt, meld and congeal as they did six years ago.

The mouth of the volcano is centered around Big 10 headquarters and those four schools. Word is, if Notre Dame bites this time, the Big 10 will invite a fifth team to create a 16-team superconference.

The eruption from this event would create an entirely new college football landscape, especially if Notre Dame gives up its independence.

This from the conference that made itself an island by not wanting a conference championship game, almost rendering itself a non-competitor for BCS titles in the process. How does this bunch call the shots? 

Because Big 10 fans don't just give, they tithe. And there are a lot of Big 10 fans.

The Big 10 Network, created by conference commish Jim Delaney, was thought to be a bust because it didn't become a national powerhouse that would be in every cable market in the country. 

But that wasn't necessarily the plan at the start. The network is a regional powerhouse in Big 10 states, yielding 88-cents per cable subscriber in one of the most populous areas of the country.

It has created a fund where, along with bowl and BCS payouts, each Big Ten school gets a check for around $20 million a year. That's more than twice as much as the Big XII's measly $7 million to $9 million per school per year.

Add revenues from the states of Missouri and New Jersey, then the football reputation of Nebraska and everyone else must beware. 

Add Notre Dame and the smoldering volcano becomes Vesuvius. The Irish would automatically make the Big Ten Network a Very Big Deal.

Then watch the lava hit the fan.

Stay with me now -- this is going to move fast, but here's one apocalyptic scenario...

The Big XII takes a big hit if Nebraska and Missouri are really invited by the Big Ten -- because they'll both go, unhappy with the revenue sharing arrangement that gives everybody some but those who appear on national television (read: Texas and Oklahoma) more.

Though the Big XII has more BCS title game rep than the Big Ten, should two schools leave it becomes a lot shakier. TCU is primped and ready to be asked to dance, but it will be critical for the conference to work a big TV deal of their own with the Pac-10, or risk having Colorado go there.

But the Big XII is still already a patchwork conference with no long history and it knows it's in deep. If the Pac-10 smells blood in the water, the Big XII will need to look for the Pac-10's dorsal fin. The Pac-10 will bite another chunk off of the Big XII North in Colorado, and probably go after Utah of the Mountain West and maybe -- MAYBE -- Brigham Young.

(If BYU knows what's good for it, somebody in the LDS will have the revelation that it's okay to play on Sundays and, Lo, Pac-10: "This is the place.")

Rumors that the Pac-10 is interested in Fresno State are laughable. It only makes sense geographically, which would be like the Ivy League looking to add Bunker Hill Community College because its in Massachusetts. 

The Pac-10 prides itself on its academics and for having a conference enforcement policy more stringent than the NCAA. They, along with Big 10ers, truly believe something they excrete does not stink -- at least, not in comparison to anyone else.

The day the Bulldogs get into the Pac-10 is the day head coach Pat Hill shaves off the Fu Manchu and starts wearing new caps.

In other words, Never. 

Next, look for the Big XII to make an ineffectual pass at having Arkansas join, to which the Hoggies will reply -- and I quote -- "No."

Then the conference will think about adding TCU, perhaps BYU (if they're not already pledged to the Pac-10), perhaps Houston -- but will implode when Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M join the SEC, which will invite one more to create its own 16-team superconference.

Ah, but this would be the best scenario for UTEP. Imagine, Conference USA, which has already gained its foothold in Texas, being able to work a deal in Dallas to invite Texas Tech and Baylor and maybe Oklahoma State. Make yourself big enough to get the Kansas schools in and you have a real party.

Yes, the Mountain West would be a big player, but the Texas and Oklahoma schools benefit more by being in a Texas-centric conference. The Mountain West stands to lose a LOT more if Utah and BYU are gone, even if Boise State joins up, and the fact it's headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, does not help a conference that still doesn't have as good a television deal as C-USA.

Hmmm. A whiff of old Southwest Conference. UTEP might want to hope the Pac-10 is feeling particularly shark-like going forward. 

If a Big XII-Pac-10 TV deal is reached, though, that bet is completely off.

And, oh yeah, Memphis joins the Big East, which subtracts from its football reputation without Pitt, which would probably join the Big 10 as the 16th team if Notre Dame goes.

Meanwhile, keep the surgical masks handy -- the ash cloud is still putting out for the next few months.

Floyd on Des Lee and His Seniors

UTEP head coach Tim Floyd talks about guard Desmond Lee. 

The 6-3 Virginia native can play the one or the two position, but might want to work on his point guard skills if he wants to play a lot this season, as the Miners return Conference USA's Player of the Year, Randy Culpepper, as their shooting guard. 

Floyd also discussed Lee and his other incoming freshmen -- young men he hopes will keep his seniors honest.