Opinion: Where do the Bobcats go from here?

Starting today and tomorrow, 64 of our nation’s universities and colleges will be getting plenty of “free” publicity with the start of this year’s NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

Tournament followers will be educated about lesser-known schools that most common sport fans couldn’t find on a map, especially if that school’s team pulls off a big upset or advances deep into the tournament.

This sort of exposure is enhanced by the millions of office pools and contest brackets that are filled out by those big-time college basketball followers, as well as the “less educated” fans, like the quiet lady in the accounting department who picks all four No. 16 seeds to advance to the Final Four.

But getting a team to the tournament nowadays comes with a price. And if Texas State wants to cash in on March Madness for the first time since 1997, the school is going to have to pony up in more ways than one. Especially if the school wants to attract a strong candidate to replace former head men’s basketball coach to Doug Davalos, who was recently released after a seven-year stint at the school.

First off, trying to sell an up-and-coming Division-I coach to come to a “football” school wedged between to major media markets is tough. Of course, the fact that San Marcos is a wonderful place to live and the school has a beautiful campus should sell itself, but coaches, and players for that matter, desire a program where they are assured future success — not only on the classroom, but in the eyes of the college basketball world.

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