With the future of college football unknown, it is time for some out-of-the-box thinking.

The Big Five conferences have shown their hand, telling all the little guys it is our way or the highway.

They made that clear with a vote earlier this summer that basically proclaimed they can do what they want when they want when it comes to college athletics.

Paying players will be the start, but there are rumblings to the little guys that if you don’t play along then you won’t be able to cash in on the financial windfall each autumn.

Those mega programs are taking a page out of the Gordon Gekko playbook in the movie “Wall Street.”

The big conferences are telling the world, just like Gekko: “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”

If the other guys don’t think so, they can take their footballs, helmets and kicking tees and go home.

In the new world of college sports money talks and the rest play along or walk.

But in such chaos there seems to be some opportunity for the little guy.

This isn’t David slaying Goliath but rather David finding his own playground where he can thrive.

Maybe we have already seen the start of something like this.

Today it will become official that McNeese State will play at Louisiana-Lafayette in the fall of 2016, renewing a rivalry that dates back years and has been good for both programs.

They no longer play football on the same level, but they do share the same patch of land to a great extent. That should make for growing interest in the game up and down the I-10 between the two cities.

And this could just be the start.

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves too much, but follow this line of thinking.

If the Big Five do decide to take their money and run, the only way the others playing on the Division I level will be able to survive is by regional interest.

That means crowds must be bigger and fans have to become more engaged. Maybe even a regional or state television deal could be worked out.

In other words, if the big schools get most of the national money it will take local dollars to save some of these programs.

And we haven’t even mentioned the savings when it comes to travel.

Save more, make more. It could be a win-win situation.

Now making that happen will not be easy. You have to get folks to put their egos away, but it could work.

Imagine the interest for a UL-Monroe game against Louisiana Tech. Or Tulane against ULL. Wait, we saw that last year at the New Orleans Bowl and it drew a record crowd for that game in the Superdome.

So we do have a blueprint. We might have had two if not for La. Tech electing not to play ULM in the Independence Bowl two years ago.

That move proved costly.

An all-Louisiana college football conference probably would not work. There are not enough teams. But you could invite a few neighbors to come along, like maybe Southern Mississippi and Troy from the East and Lamar and maybe Sam Houston State from the West.

Local teams, local interest, local dollars might follow.

These games will not replace LSU-Alabama on the interest scale, but they sure seem more appetizing than McNeese State hosting McMurry College.

Odds are against this ever becoming a reality, that much is clear.

But before you say never, no way, can’t happen remember this: some 17 months ago this column said it would be great if McNeese played ULL once again and all the Ragin’ Cajun fans said never.

Well, never became a date on the calendar in 2016 so anything is possible.

l

Jim Gazzolo is managing sports editor. Email him at jgazzolo@americanpress.com(MGNonline)