Football, my beloved sport, may be in trouble.

Say what?

The pigskin may have been diagnosed with skin cancer. The laces may be defective and fraying.

Not pro football, that version of the sport has, in my humble opinion has been awaiting the flush handle. Or may be close to being owned by the Saudis or, gasp, Chi-coms.

Talking about college football here. A game, unless you live deep under a rock, that is really important to folks in Big Sky Country.

We call our rivalry clash the Brawl of the Wild. Hostile action for sure, and the winner gets to march around the field holding on their shoulders what looks like petrified cow piles .

Could someone please design a better trophy for the winners of that game?

But that’s a whole different story.

What, then, has planted this burr under my saddle?

Something that has been occurring in the nearby Pac-12, Pac-11, Pac 10 and now, after this season, the Pac-9?

That doesn’t even make sense mathematically. Conference membership must be an even number, right?

But the gradual erosion of the Pac-12, which Bill Walton boasts is the “conference of champions”, is very real and poses a very real threat to college football. My fear is that the trend to create super conferences will trickle down to the FCS teams, formerly referred to as Division 1-A.

Allow me to explain this madness. It’s really all about the Benjamins, a Congressional slang phrase used to describe $100 bills.

And, sadly, we fans have unknowingly played a huge role in the upcoming disaster as the “big boys” drift toward two “super conferences”, as the Pac-whatever fades into obscurity.

By biting the bait put out by ESPN and their jock-worshipping employees, we have encouraged the formation of these mega-conferences. And what may be worse of all is the sad fact that the Big “10” for several years has had 14 teams. I’m no math whiz, I went into journalism to avoid math classes, but I believe the proper count should be the Big 14.

The same is true for the soon-to-be further bloated Big 12, which this year also has 14 teams, a number that will increase after the 2023 season with the addition of USC, UCLA and now Colorado. Subtract three from the Pac-?, and add that to the Big 12, which is really the Big 14 and you magically get the Big 17.

There’s some real new math at work.

But the geniuses will still refer to the Big “17” as the Big “12”, too much trouble, I guess to count correctly and change one number of the stationery.

Soon, the so-called football playoffs will be totally ruled by two conferences. Oh, they will spit out some spin about “at large”, or “lesser conference” members who may make a run for the national title, but that will be just talk.

Level of competition they will call it.

So what, you may ask, does this have to do with the Big Sky Conference?

Plenty, my friends.

The FCS folks will no doubt follow the lead of the upper division clubs, and it has already begun as schools scramble to be part of “noteworthy” conferences.

The Big Sky is already, in a big way, part of this movement.

There are, at last count, 12 Big Sky Conference football playing schools. What used to be a nifty conference, and one, I dare say, of champions, is being watered down by the chase for Benjamins, AKA TV time.

There-in lies the tie to ESPN, which is behind so many things that affect college athletics.

Breaks my heart to see the changes to this conference.

What used to be the two Montana schools, three Idaho schools (Idaho, Idaho State and, yes at one time Boise State), Weber State and Northern Arizona has grown into a watered-down list that includes three schools from California.

Don’t get me wrong, Montana State, Montana and Idaho (a few years ago, before their ill-fated attempt at moving up to the upper crust) are all national title threats. The Bobcats head into the season ranked number two in most polls. The question is, are those schools just playing for second place behind the North Dakota State juggernaut?

South Dakota State gave all FCS schools hope last season, and MSU and UM have championship caliber programs.

But I worry the rush to add members to a conference could deplete recruiting pools via saturation.

To head this off, let me offer what I think is a very sensible solution.

Boot the California schools out of the conference.

Yup, they could form their own “Big Tax Conference” and stay within the borders of what used to be an awesome state.

This would help increase the level of competition in the Big Sky and create a more stable financial structure. California is bad mojo.

At least the Big Sky can count. And simple math may save the day.