Television deal will kill SDSU recruiting

Let’s say you are a top high school prospect and want to play college sports where you can get a lot of television exposure.

If so, then you can forget about attending San Diego State.

The television deal that the Mountain West Conference has is eventually going to destroy some teams – and SDSU could be at the top of the list.

The conference has a ridiculous deal whereby most of its teams have conference games televised on a network called themtn.

Only 1.2 million people nationwide get the channel. The number is extremely low in San Diego because you must have Cox Communications digital cable to watch themtn.

Whenever SDSU football or basketball games are televised on themtn., there probably aren’t 1,000 local households watching … or able to watch.

Sadly, any top recruit who wants his or her friends and relatives see them play on TV will want to go to a school where people actually get the channel which televises their games.

This certainly works if you are on networks such as ESPN, CBS, NBC or Fox.

Too bad San Diegans can’t even watch their own team play. In the long run, this will kill recruiting … and possibly the already downtrodden SDSU athletic program.

Chargers facing another lost weekend?

You think the Chargers’ loss was bad enough last week at Minnesota?

Just wait until the Indianapolis Colts come to town for Sunday night’s match-up on NBC-TV.

Peyton Manning has spent a lot of time on his back in his last two games against the Chargers, but he’ll probably be spending much more time in the end zone this week.

As if San Diego’s defense wasn’t horrible enough last Sunday, it will spend this week’s entire game without injured defensive end Luis Castillo and (most likely) cornerback Quentin Jammer.

Ouch.

Can you smell 400-plus yards for Manning?

Offensively, the Chargers couldn’t run or pass against Minnesota (does that mean they didn’t do anything right?)

Indianapolis? It has a better defense than the Vikings.

Yes, these are the same Chargers who two years ago went into Indianapolis and spoiled the Colts’ bid for a perfect season when they were 13-0.

But there was a major difference: Motivator Marty Schottenheimer coached them in 2005; motivation-less Norv Turner is the current coach.

If San Diego State wins this weekend at Nevada Las Vegas, the Aztecs will be 4-5 on the season. The Chargers will have the same record if (when?) they lose to the Colts.

Who would’ve thought?

Predictions:

Colts 31, Chargers 20

SDSU 24, UNLV 21