I’ve been reading John Feinstein’s marvelous book about the college purity of Patriot league basketball. That got me thinking how Army football might better sustain it’s reputation for focusing on academics and leader development rather than trying to compete with programs focused on sports first and academics second.

While there are some fine schools in Conference USA, I have always thought of West Point as a notch higher. We should align ourselves with top-flight institutions, much as we have done with the Patriot League in basketball. For example, consider a league comprised of some of the highly regarded small universities that play Division I football: Army, Navy, Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Tulane and Rice. Northwestern, Houston or Air Force could be the 8th team.

What a great football conference this would make. These universities field Division I teams with great academic reputations and not necessarily the best records against league rivals.

The conference would also be fairly geographically sound and contain some traditional rivalries. An eight-team conference would allow each school to schedule their traditional rivalries in addition to league games. It would also allow them to keep competing against schools with similar priorities and limitations.

Most of all, this league would mean that every school could line up on the field against an opponent they respect as students and athletes -- the essence of collegiate athletics that we seem to have lost over the years.

Finally, there would be a lot of parity in this league given their recent level of play, so it would be important to find a bowl game for the league winner and regional TV contracts. And, of course, the conference would need a catchy name to get people’s attention and reflect the spirit of the member schools. "WSF8 -- We’re Students First Eight" comes to mind, but perhaps they could have a contest to come up with a better name.

Of course all this is only wishful thinking and there are many barriers to ever creating such a league (primarily teams leaving other conferences), but it seems to me that the payoff and pleasure of participating in such a confederation of respected academic institutions could serve as a shining example of the true essence and purest form of intercollegiate athletics, and I think many fans would agree.

Just a thought from a college sports purist.