Geography means nothing anymore in college

I have two teenage sons, one of whom is a junior in high school. So it’s time to be thinking about where my eldest boy will attend college. Fortunately, he’s a pretty darn good varsity swimmer and diver, so a scholarship could be in his future. But even as the colleges come calling, his mom and I will still have input on where he goes.

I would like him to attend a school that values education, which is something the Big East Conference has seemingly forgot.

In an effort to beef up the strength of the league, the Big East officially added five schools last week. Even though it is a geographically named conference, location doesn’t matter. There are apparently no former real estate agents who work for the Big East.

Central Florida was one of the schools added, which is the only one that is actually a sound geographic decision. The other four teams? San Diego State, Boise State, Houston and Dallas-based Southern Methodist University.

I don’t have a problem with this if the Big East changes its name to something that removes the “East” from its name. I don’t see that happening, just like I do not expect the 10-team Big 12 Conference and 12-team Big 10 Conference to swap names.

The Big East raised some of the same geographic eyebrows a few months ago when it invited Texas Christian University. TCU has since reneged on its decision to join the Big East and accepted an invitation to the Big 12.

“I think it’s perfect,” former TCU quarterback and current Cincinnati Bengals starter Andy Dalton told me and two other reporters on a teleconference Wednesday morning at Rams Park. “It makes more sense than the Big East, where we were going to begin with. For the location part of it, it makes a lot of sense.”

Keeping that last sentence in mind, what does Dalton think of the Big East adding four teams west of the Mississippi River – including one located on the Pacific Coast?

“Now that doesn’t make sense,” he said.

I couldn’t agree more.