Also, it’s time to follow Louisiana Tech (whether you want to or not)

With the Bobcat’s ejection from NCAA baseball tournament, and the conclusion of the NCAA Track & Field Championship, Sun Belt fans can now unfollow Texas State. It’s okay, because Texas State has already unfollowed you. It’s a mutual unfollowing.

Texas State cheerfully packs-up its gold and maroon bric-a-brac for new digs in the Pretend PAC-12, a conglomerate of treasonous former members of the Mountain West and a pair of spurned PAC-12 leftovers who stabbed their MWC hosts in the back. Seems like a good group of guys you’re joining. I don’t have a crystal ball, nor do I read tea leaves, but when a desperate BIG 12 acquires Oregon State and Washington State within the next two years, you heard it here first.

When the Sun Belt picked up Texas State in 2012, everybody was a little desperate. The CUSA had raided the Sun Belt of several properties, and the FCS provided the only path to a rebuild. The Bobcats were planted in football-rich soil and boasted an amusing baseball program. If their inclusion was a fix it would do until the fix got here.

It wasn’t a smooth transition for Texas State. The program had elevated to the FBS, but an FCS mentality lingered. “Think small, be small, act small, Be Texas State,” was the mantra coined by billionaire donor Jerry Fields after the football program hired head coach Everett Withers – who had replaced the even less inspiring Dennis Franchione. The program was criticized for its poor recruiting (despite its Texan locale), its poor attendance, its weak marketing and its lack of urgency. Even the Bobcats nutrition program failed to escape criticism, which was viewed to be below FBS standards.

But when Texas State poached Arkansas State chancellor Kelly Damphousse and installed him as System President, the athletics department appeared to adopt a new energy. The program’s first move was to jettison the promising but underperforming Jake Spavital and replace him with head football coach GJ Kinne, formerly of Incarnate Word and imbued with Lone Star moxie. Kinne lead the Bobcats to consecutive bowl appearances and established Texas State as a conference contender.

Though the Bobcats fell short of winning the conference (or the division), Texas State had shed its FCS mentality forever. Coupled with successes in softball, baseball, volleyball and basketball, the Bobcats began to view themselves on an elevated plane of existence. When the SEC and BIG10 conspired to destroy the PAC12, Texas State saw an opportunity.

It didn’t help that the Sun Belt and Texas State were not perfectly fit. The lone Texan program in the conference, the Bobcats struggled to find a natural SBC rival. Many fans were more passionately opposed to western programs like Sam Houston and UTSA. Geographically, San Marcos felt like an outlier in the Sun Belt’s tight footprint. Logistics weren’t favorable.

Texas State also fell prey to a common phenomenon that plagues the Sun Belt – a kind of delusion of grandeur that follows success, no matter how brief. The PAC12, though reduced to two malcontents, billed itself as a “power conference,” and in the minds of many Texas State fans, the Bobcats had earned a position of power. Texas State was a giant that had slept long enough. Bearing a large student body, access to Texas recruiting, a growing campus, and improving facilities, the conference that elevated the Bobcats and provided them with with opportunity was now too small to cater to larger ambitions.

Fighting Like Cats & Dogs

The strength of Louisiana Tech is that everyone seems to universally dislike Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs have a penchant for pissing people off. Louisiana Tech famously declined to join the Sun Belt in 2001, when the conference adopted football. It later scoffed at the notion of joining the SBC during the chaos of 2012. When former AD Tommy McClelland insinuated that a notion of a Sun Belt/CUSA was beneath LaTech, it only dimmed the relationship further.

However, there is no ignoring the Bulldogs’ athletic strengths. Though the state of Louisiana is strapped for cash, LaTech is as committed to fielding competitive teams – traditionally in football but particularly in basketball and baseball, where the Sun Belt is focused on making a national statement. Arguably, the Bulldogs have had every measure of success enjoyed by the Bobcats, but for a far longer period of time. To underscore LaTech’s alliance with the Sun Belt, Louisiana Tech is paying a Conference USA record exit fee of more than $8 million to leave the conference.

A portfolio featuring three Louisiana universities may not be the diversification that financial advisors would support. The educational system is under some financial strain, and the Cajuns and Warhawks are likely unenthusiastic in sharing a stage with the Bulldogs. Additionally, there were some fans in the conference’s Eastern quadrant that supported the inclusion of a more local rival.

All of this friction is a plus. In a college sports world that is exchanging rivalry for profit, the smoldering heat between Louisiana Tech and the Sun Belt at large is refreshing. While Texas State fans are forced to manufacture hatred for unfamiliar foes like San Diego State and Utah State, the Sun Belt has recruited a baked-in villain.

Welcome to the fray, Bulldogs! To Texas State, we bid you farewell. May you live forever.

IMAGE: Screen shot