who?

I was looking at Texas Tech's football schedule, and the title of this post was my reaction to several of the upcoming seasons's opponents. I mean, sure, I remember the SMU Mustangs and the Rice Owls from the old Southwestern Conference days (where the only non-Texas team was Arkansas, which meant that the Baylor was, like, the 4th best team in the conference!), but I could've sworn they just packed up their football clubs after the dissolution of the conference and focused their extra time instead on sullying the curbs of Lower Greenville and the reputations of Evangelical girls.

At first, however, I was impressed that Tech has scored a gig with Northwestern (not a great school, but at least a non-conference school somebody has heard of) until I saw it was actually Northwestern State. As in Northwestern Louisiana State, in Natchitoches, LA (that's pronounced "NAK-a-tish" for those of you who've never passed through it-- yeah, I know, friggin' Cajuns...).

Is it because they have to find schools within a certain distance or something? Because I still don't get the rationale for playing these shitty schools.