The laundry list of issues in modern college football would make Chris Jericho blush. Two transfer portal windows. Unclear enforcement of the revenue share cap. An expanding playoff that undermines the regular season and is controlled by two conferences hellbent on tilting an already uneven playing field further in their favor. 

But the disappearing of regional rivalries across the country as conferences bloat into a national footprint represent the biggest threat to the true fabric of college football. Success was never measured by fans with television ratings or department revenue. It was rarely measured by national championships.

Beat your rivals. Win your conference. Dominate the region. And then go enjoy a showcase game in a bowl against a team that had done the same on their turf. The fun was in your team beating your best friend’s team. Or your boss’s. Or your uncle’s. Not some helmet from the other side of the country. 

Think of what this sport has lost in the name of growth. Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State. Texas vs. Baylor, Texas Tech, and TCU. The entire Pac-12 as we know it. Sam Houston vs. SFA. Soon, TCU vs. SMU and Houston vs. Rice will play the final scheduled games against each other, essentially ending the Battle for the Iron Skillet and the Bayou Bucket. Games that were once so important that they required names are now disappearing into a faceless past. 

That’s why Texas State vs. UTSA stands as a reminder of what the best of this sport can look and feel like. Of meaningful rivalry. Of the value of border disputes and the elevated disdain for the university across the proverbial street. Of tradition and culture and community. 

Texas State and UTSA grads know each other. Players on UTSA and Texas State grew up together and competed with and against each other under Friday Night Lights. 

There is trash talk on social media and on the field. There are bragging rights at stake and beating each other means more because you’ll run into fans from the other side at work and church and at family get togethers. There is a connective tissue that binds Texas State and UTSA that doesn’t exist when the Bobcats play ULM or the Roadrunners face Temple. 

The rivalry between UTSA and Texas State is new. The Bobcats moved into the FBS ranks in 2012 as members of the WAC before joining the Sun Belt in 2013. The Roadrunners also joined the WAC in 2012 before moving to Conference USA in 2013 and the American in 2023. The first game was a 38-31 win by UTSA during that 2012 season. The latest contest was last year’s blowout win for Texas State. The Roadrunners won the first five against their rival and Texas State head coach G.J. Kinne believes the rivalry didn’t truly kick off until that game ended. 

“I don’t think it was much of a rivalry; I don’t think it was much of a series to be honest with you until last year I guess,” the third-year head coach at Texas State said during this week’s media availability. “They’re a really good team. I think Coach (Jeff) Traylor does a really good job.” 

Debate that point until you’re maroon or orange in the face, but whether it was a true rivalry until both teams won or not, there is no denying it is one now. UTSA and Texas State don’t compete each other for conference championships, but the two do cross paths in recruiting. The Bobcats’ impending move to the Pac-12 only closes any gap that existed between the two programs, especially on the financial side. 

Despite the stakes on and off the field, the heated rivalry doesn’t extend to the head coaches. Traylor coached Kinne during his senior season at Gilmer after Kinne’s father, a high school coach himself, was shot and forced to exit coaching for a few years. Traylor and Kinne developed a bond that is unbreakable to this day. The two talk constantly. Traylor helped Kinne get the head coaching at nearby Incarnate Word and then at Texas State. Kinne was in Traylor’s son’s wedding. 

But the two are competitors and any illusion of keeping the rivalry away from their relationship was shattered when Kinne whooped Traylor’s Roadrunners, 49-10. It was the most lopsided loss to a fellow G5 team in Traylor’s five-year tenure. It might not be personal for Traylor or Kinne on Saturday like it will be for the fans in the stands, but it absolutely matters more than most of the other games on the schedule. 

“GJ has done a fantastic job over there and definitely outcoached us last year,” Traylor told the press this week. “Anytime you get your butt handed to you like we did last year it better ignite something (in you) or you’re not a competitor.” 

That win unlocked a local rivalry and made it into one that the nation should care about. Yet, the game is on ESPN+. A shame. 

“It is crazy to me that this game isn’t on ESPN,” he said. “Why would you not put this on ESPN? It is going to be the best G5 game of the year, I hope. As far as rivalries and the dynamics and the back-and-forth the last two years, that blows my mind.” 

Now that is something both fan bases agree on.