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[QUOTE="SWC75, post: 418644, member: 289"]
I was watching Ken Burns' documentary on the Dust Bowl last night and it appears one of the causes was that the farmers, using their new tractors in the 20's, plowed up every inch of land to plant crops and got rid of all the native grass. there was no concept of crop rotation, soil conservation, etc. One survivor of the period described the attitude that prevailed: "What makes money now is good. Anything else is bad". And they wound up with houses being barried in loose soil. The government bought up the abandoned farms and replanted grass. Farmers that kept going we paid not to plant crops in some of their fields. Slowly the natural vegetation returned and the soil stayed in place. Farmers found they could prosper with a better planned approach and are now feeding the country and the world.
 
It seems to me that the TV executives and the college administrators who will do whatever the TV executives want to get an immediate payout are like the original midwestern farmers who, when they got the technology to do it plowed and planted every inch. If the geographic rivalries and proximity that have always been the topsoil of college sports get plowed up so be it. If we can cash in right now, who cares? At some point the TV networks will find fewer people care and the flow of money will stop. And the Dust Bowl of collegate sports will begin.
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