As fall days migrate past my lake cabin like the flocks of geese winging by overhead, I practice a nightly ritual.
Before I go to bed, I walk outside, stand on the shoreline and count the number of cabins across the lake with lights on.
Most nights, it's been 17 that I could see. Last night, I counted just seven. Perhaps some of those missing lights belong to summer people like me, who close up the cabin for the winter months.
It reminds me of the changing landscape in college athletics these days, where UND joins the Big Sky Conference and South Dakota goes to the Missouri Valley for football and Summit for all others.
The feel in the air some nights harbors the approach of winter and signals the end of summer people on Lake Beltrami. The changing landscape in college sports sends schools, not summer people, scattering for more attractive locations.
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Those 17 cabins across the lake with lights on somehow give me a warm and comfortable feeling. The difference from college athletics is that I go to bed knowing those same cabin lights will twinkle again next summer.
In college athletics, old rivalries and conference ties disappear as fast as the leaves from the trees on a windy, late-fall day.
I have a depth finder on my boat, so I know how deep the water is at any point on the lake. It helps guide me to the best fishing spots.
There is no depth finder available to college athletics. Is the Big Sky the best conference for UND? Did South Dakota make the best choice by accepting membership in the Missouri Valley Football Conference rather than the Big Sky?
The answer probably is yes on both counts. South Dakota's decision was driven in large part by saving money at a school low on funds for athletics.
UND's decision was driven by a need to find a conference home for all its athletic teams. So at this time, I'd say the choice was right for both schools.
Yet as those cabin lights across the lake go dark in late fall and light up next spring, so it is with college athletics.
Who's to say what the conference memberships will look like five years from now. There are rumors that Villanova will leave the Colonial Conference, the reigning Football Championship Subdivision champ moving up a level to the Big East.
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There are rumors that Youngstown State will leave the Missouri Valley and replace Villanova in the Colonial.
Gone are the days of easy bus rides and familiarity with an opponent of the old North Central Conference. Once NDSU and South Dakota State moved up and out, the wheels of change began rolling.
And where they stop, nobody knows. It's not beyond imagination that some day NDSU and South Dakota State could end up in the proactive Big Sky Conference with the Fighting Sioux. They once sought membership in that league, remember.
Montana of the Big Sky Conference has been in the football national championship game five of the last 10 years, so it's a conference with established football strength. And football drives Bison athletics.
There's been talk that Montana could leave the Big Sky to chase bigger dreams, attesting to the great uncertainty and turbulent waters found in college affiliations these days.
I don't expect that to happen, but who knows.
These days, about all I know for certain is how many cabins across the lake were lit up last night. And that tomorrow night, just like college athletics, that could all change.
Foss, who reported on sports for 36 years for the Grand Forks Herald until his retirement, writes a weekly column from October through April. Contact him at virgfoss@yahoo.com or at (701) 772-9272.
