Utah State football: Dark cloud hangs over Aggies

LOGAN — More than 1,500 fans gathered at Romney Stadium for Aggie Family Fun Day and to watch Utah State's football team scrimmage.

Many of them were only casually aware of the action on the football field, though.

Instead of painstakingly watching each play, many spent much of the scrimmage chatting to each other about what might be going on in the athletic director's office.

"My phone has been burning up," USU AD Scott Barnes told a handful of media members gathered for the scrimmage. "It has been burning up with both calls in and out. That's based on making sure we have all of our lines open and all of our options open."

Those options are an awful lot different than they were just a week earlier.

Instead of celebrating a new alliance with BYU in the WAC, Utah State found itself still in a conference that is as close to dying as any conference in the country. And after turning down an opportunity to, at long last, find a home in the Mountain West Conference.

"We felt very confident in the alignment we had, the security we had in WAC members and BYU. We thought that was the very best next step for Utah State athletics. Obviously, that has gone away for reasons you've all heard," Barnes said. "That said, every oar is in the water We are exploring all possibilities. Our focus is on making the WAC better.

"That said, we are at a time and place where we need to look at every opportunity there is out there. Any opportunity that we pursue would be the very best for our student athletes and coaches."

After initially standing in solidarity with the WAC, it is clear that the time for loyalty has passed.

Utah State would like to have MWC commissioner Craig Thompson give them another call with an invitation.

But even with future conference affiliation the No. 1 topic of discussion, there is a football season just two weeks away. And Aggie coach Gary Andersen put his team through a physical scrimmage before letting them hang out with and greet their fans.

"Right now we have 30 kids going to Oklahoma that are freshmen or sophomores. It's also the first time that we have been exposed to the pre-game environment and that was a positive," Andersen said. "As far as the scrimmage goes. it was much more balanced. It was great to see the kids making plays. It was great to see the wide receivers making plays down the field, which is what we haven't had for a week or so in practice, and that is a big positive for us."