Can't Take UNM Football Seriously

I just can’t take University of New Mexico football seriously.
The thought re-appeared the other day with an ESPN story ranking college football jobs by desirability.
Texas is number one. Oklahoma State is 20th. The list includes ten southern schools. (I count the Oklahoma schools as southern for this purpose.)
Three schools seem exceptions to any other commonality: Southern California, Notre Dame and the University of Oregon, which is in Eugene, also home to Nike and gazillions of dollars.
Five are in state capitols. Six are in places of some size such as Austin, Columbus, Ohio; and Tucson and Tempe. A dozen or so are in “college towns” such as Norman, Oklahoma, or Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Identity may be the theme linking these 20. The biggest headline on the LSU website (www.lsu.edu) says, “Love Purple. Live Gold.” The University of Florida (www.ufl.edu) says, “The Foundation for the Gator Nation.”
An ultimate expression of identity fixation, or football fixation anyway, comes in Lincoln, Nebraska, where football radio broadcasts are piped into the elevators of the Cornhusker Marriott, the fanciest hotel in town.
Another cultural impact clue comes with “Roll, Tide,” which seems to a common form of greeting in Tuscaloosa. Can you imagine greeting people in New Mexico with, “Go, Lobos?”
The University of New Mexico offers nothing similar, which is just fine with me. But that’s the point. UNM Is a commuter school. The relationship, for nearly everyone, is: Drive to campus, go to class, leave. UNM has no identity.
Rocky Long showed us doubters that UNM football could be competitive. Fans sometimes filled the stadium. The two years since his departure showed just how fragile was the base.
Thus it was laughable to read that UNM may join a lawsuit against the BCS, the college football championship charade. So long as public money doesn’t finance this nonsensical concept, I don’t care.
The third item motivating this modest meditation was reading that UNM coach Mike Locksley ranks second on the new list of coaches in greatest danger of losing their job.
This morning I shared the Locksley ranking with a fellow at the gym. Laughter in response to hearing Lockley’s ranking. “You mean there’s somebody worse,” the man said.
The laughter suggests that UNM football may be doing it’s basic job of entertaining.