College football is home to many, many traditions. The sheer amount of devotion to maintaining these traditions is a passion, pastime, and sometimes of a dubious time-consuming labor. The debate on the possible move up to Division 1 football (OMGBOWLGAMES) from Division 1-AA is one such aforementioned pastime at the University of Montana. No seriously, the only thing that could potentially be more exhausting as far as debates go can only be the Paris 1919 Peace Conferences in Versailles. If you go to egriz.com, you will find literally hundreds of threads, dating back approximately 115 years to the era of panhandling, that have covered damn near every potential awesome thing and pitfall to breaking free of the sinking ship that is the Big Sky Conference: From increased ticket prices to financial windfalls of bowl games and whether a bowl game fit for the petty kings of the Sun Belt is really better than the unseen clash of titans in the 1-AA Championship game that takes place in the barren hills of high-hilled Scotland, you can take in EVERYTHING about the Great Move Up Debate. Now, keep in mind that because Griz fans believe that Missoula IS the center of the college football universe, and that anything that happens there will send massive shockwaves throughout the college football world that will shatter everything you have ever held dear, you must take roughly 85% of those opinions with a grain of salt...Or a big sack of cattle crap.
Now, with this debate, there are several camps that could be condensed into two primary, polarizing forces. There are the Idealistic, Democracy-Loving types who embrace equality and the pure, sweet message of the every child getting his shot on the playground, and there are the more pragmatic, realistic types who, while liking the notion of equality in 1-AA and the playoff system, are looking to the future of their kingdom as the hard-faced cynics and world-minded men of 1400's Venice and wanting a move up to the more rough-and-tumble, Might Makes Right world of the bowl system (okay maybe those Griz fans aren't hard-faced but they are much more accepting of reality than the Woodrow Wilson crowd). The Idealistic side espouses the same stubborn, near-fanatical devotion to keep their idealistic world right and beautiful, to compete in a "pure" system of crowning a "true" national champion. They want to remain here in 1-AA so they can continue their close to 20 years of DYNASTY football running and at Warp Speed 10. They would likely rather die off then ever, EVER play in a bowl game because their view of the world specifically states that Montana shall never set foot in a game other than the one in Frisco, Texas (it was just moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee this past season). If one were to open the head and look at the mindset of these particular Griz fans, you would find their football universe shaped much like the Hereford Map:
At the center of this map is Jerusalem, the very center of the world as far as the denizens of the 1300's were concerned. You have Europe and Africa on the lower half and all of Asia taking up the upper half. Now, let's Grizzify it a little more. At the center of the world is Missoula, in place of Jerusalem. The Big Sky Conference and the rest of 1-AA football encompasses Europe (look for ISU where Ireland is!) and known Africa. Division 1 football with all the bowl games (OMG!) can be Asia. Bowl games to those idealistic Griz fans are an exotic yet evil land, much like how the Middle East was seen by rabid Crusaders before they settled down. If one were to identify the Vandals, Broncos and Wolfpack (Nevada) as the original crusaders who settled down (in 1996 and not 1100) in the bowl system, you'll see that they grew to like the new land very much, even if it didn't benefit them at first (the Crusaders came to adopt Eastern dress, ideas, currency and even a more open-minded view towards the conquered peoples as not demons but interesting folks...the Broncos established holds on bowl games and BCS bids, Nevada has done alright and Idaho is just barely climbing out of their hole to a healthier existence). The original 1-AA teams of BSU, Nevada and Idaho, while they semi-sorta miss their experiences for competing for "real" national championships, have grown into their bowl game kingdoms. Oh sure, they don't like the bowl system, but like the original Crusaders, what are they going to do about it with finite resources? Montana, at least the hard-line conservative types fresh from Europe (1-AA) complete with papal blessings, are looking at these bowl teams who have settled into the bowl system and wonder what ever corrupted these people into their new-found perverted ways? Oh SURRREEE they have new wealth and fancy trading contacts with dynamic, wealthy entities but they have clearly defied the Lord and all that is right! This typifies the prevalent thinking of the idealistic hard-line fans who desire to see Montana right where they are: crushing insolent feudal states and maintaining their hold on the vast, westernmost provinces of 1-AA with nary a challenger except from within and the usual, seasonal long march to the aforementioned lonely battlefields of high-hilled Scotland to do battle with the more populous (and pompous) states of the east.
And in the other corner of this debate lies the more pragmatic, grounded people of the move-up crowd. These folks do not disagree with the idealistic notions of the playoff system; they espouse it loudly and proudly. And yet they also recognize that their empire, while vast, is lacking of people to support it (this is, in case you didn't catch it, a reference to the fact that other than Cal Poly, Montana has little to no competition because there is a great lack of 1-AA power in the West. Most of the power players of the western half of 1-AA moved up 15-20 years ago. What I mean by "support" is that since there are no major 1-AA teams west of the Great Plains and Texas, Montana has no competition when it needs it the most). This is one of the reasons why the move-up gang is willing to swallow the bowl-game pill (the red pill, in case you're wondering). They want to see Montana survive and eventually thrive, and they are willing to risk a few down years to do it. The move-up gang also sees a major world-changing event the rabid defenders of the faith either don't see or refuse to acknowledge: the fading away of 1-AA. The idealistic hardliner Griz fans (using our Crusader image) have said that "God will provide for us!" (i.e., the NCAA won't let 1-AA fade; or they will merge us with the weaker crappy 1-A teams like Ohio-Athens, Marshall, New Mexico State...you get the idea)...both of those concepts are very wrong and dangerous to believe in. Sure, they will cover the playoffs on ESPN or ESPN2. But that's one time out of the year; indeed one time out of an entire season. The move-up gang realizes this and knows that the bowl games may suck and playing a few more road games than home sucks too but if it gets Montana on TV more, so be it (remember Florida State guys? They used to travel all the time during the season for one reason: exposure. It was gutsy and risky but it made them into a brand that's a household name today, even if they've sucked the past 7-8 years).
1-AA football, as I stated in an earlier post, is slowly dying. I'm not going to get into it much here, but I will say that it's like a window into the past of what 1-A football used to be like before the 24/7 News/Hype/OMGVENERATION culture took hold. More teams run the triple-option at this level than 1-A (Air Force, Army, Navy, Georgia Tech are the only major teams that run it today). I'll go into detail on this "window into the past" in another post (I have been meaning to for some time).
In my opinion (not that it's worth anything), Montana really needs to move-up. Yes, it will be costly. Yes, it will impact your W-L record in ways not seen since before Washington-Grizzly was built. But you gotta think about the future, and not 3-5 years. I mean 10-15, even 20 years. I bet you 1-AA isn't around in 20 years. If it is, it will be scarcely recognizable and very much less powerful. Montana, you don't want to be the decrepit old basileus in the ruined Palace Blachernae, staring at the smoking ruins of what used to be Constantinople, lost in delusions of past glories when you were the true successors of the Roman Empire (even if your half of the empire spoke Greek, you were the legitimate heirs to Roman glory). Nor do you want your program to be looking back at the incredible run of playoff games that will likely continue anyway if you remain 1-AA. Yeah you'll win national championships if you stay, that is guaranteed. But will they have any meaning in a 1-AA that has collapsed into a smoldering heap of ragtag teams and wannabes?
