Saturday Evening

When I left my house on Saturday afternoon to head to the Q and the Aztecs’ home game against New Mexico, it was entirely too late.  One thing had led to another, the pug needed to be walked before the trick-or-treaters came around, and to top it all off I had to stop for gas.  Leaving La Mesa at 4:10 for a 4:30 game, given how tough it can be to get into Qualcomm Stadium, I should have been lucky to get inside by the end of the first quarter.

Instead, I was comfortably in my seat before the national anthem.

“Sit anywhere you like!” said an Aztecs media relations staffer with a sarcastic breeziness.  She was looking, as I was, at a press box which matched the stands surrounding it.  Empty, save for two columnists (Canepa and Paris, both dutifully avoiding the handing out of candy at home) and the bare bones staffing of the news-gathering organizations that had to be there.

There are couches in the SDSU dorms that currently are more populated than what we saw in the student section on Saturday evening.  And yes, it was Halloween.  Yes, of all the times you could possibly pick to start a football game on Halloween, 4:30 would be a particularly bad time.  Blame CBS College Sports for selecting the kickoff time, and the Mountain West Conference for taking their money.

But still, when you come to a Division I college football game, in a conference where the top team may well play in a BCS game for the second straight year, you expect to at least see somebody there. Continue Reading →

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