A few oddities about football and Hawaii

Guess what? The University of Hawaii’s football team is in the Western Athletic Conference (the WAC). Hawaii is about as far west as a college football team can go.

The other WAC teams are also western in nature, with the eastern most team being Louisiana Tech, still west of the Mississippi, my arbitrary line of east vs. west. That’s where the craziness begins.

There are 12 teams in the Big 12, all west of the Missisippi, but 11 teams in the Big 10 only two of which are west of the Mississippi. Maybe they should be called the Big West and Big East conferences, respectively.

The Sun Belt Conference is oddly named. What is the sun belt? Most sources put Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina in the sun belt. Some lists have Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. I’ve been to all three and there’s less sun than in Florida.

So why does the Sun Belt Conference have Arkansas State and Middle Tennesee State on the list? There’s not much more sun in Tennessee than in Minnesota. Arkansas is a dark place even when it is sunny.

The National Football League is worse. The AFC’s East division looks good with New England, Buffalo, New York and Miami, but Indianapolis shows up in the South division. It’s hardly south of anything but Canada.

The Dallas Cowboys are top dawgs in the East division though Dallas is far west of both Kansas City and St. Louis, which are in the West division of the AFC and NFC, respectively.

In the Pacific 10 Conference, only Arizona and Arizona State are not actually in a state along the Pacific. If any state university football team deserves to be in the Pac 10, it’s Hawaii. Washington and Washington State are a combined 0-7 in Pac 10 conference play.

The Pac 10 should trade both Washington teams to the WAC in exchange for Hawaii.