Was it really just under four years ago that Boise State president Bob Kustra leaned back in a loge level seat at Aloha Stadium and talked about staying in the Western Athletic Conference, where the Broncos would work on "improving the quality of the (WAC)?"

Could it have been barely 16 months ago, upon the announcement that Boise State would move to the Mountain West Conference for 2011, that Kustra declared, "We are eager to play a key role in the future of the (MWC)?" And said he embraced a conference that "affords our student-athletes travel schedules that minimize disruption to their studies?"

The same Kustra, who, before the Broncos had even played three games in their MWC tenure, was reported in Washington, D.C., over the weekend to talk membership with the Big East?

No word yet if he stopped by Big 12 headquarters on the way home with a pledge to help grow that conference, too.

Not to pick on Kustra personally, you understand, because he is not alone in major college athletics these days, where presidents have come down out of their ivory towers to become membership mongers.

Have school, will relocate — immediately if necessary — for the promise of more TV dollars or a sniff at a home with a Bowl Championship Series automatic qualifying berth.

Hagglers in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul have nothing on these suited Ph.D. legions.

Boise State isn’t even the most extreme example, so far. Texas Christian, unless it develops another case of buyer’s remorse, will join its third league in two years — and sixth in 16 years — when it tees it up in the Big 12 next fall.

It has gotten so ridiculous that the Horned Frogs will pay a $5 million exit fee to the Big East, a conference they weren’t in long enough to play a single game.

Not that we’re betting the neighborhood institution of higher learning in Manoa would cling to its MWC pompoms for a minute if the Pac-12 showed an interest in expanding into the Pacific.

These days when a handful of college presidents get together you suspect they keep an eye on each other like a meeting of Mafia dons so they know who is aligning with whom.

This is what the BCS has helped drive things to. With a real playoff in the Football Bowl Subdivision that took in champions of all the leagues, like their brethren in the Football Championship Subdivision, as well as Division II and Division III, there would be less incentive to move. If football was handled more like men’s basketball, we’d at least have some idea who belonged to what league from one season to the next.

The funny thing about all the changes is these presidents say they are chasing stability for their schools even as their frenzied machinations destabilize the landscape.

Of course, they also talk about academics, minimizing travel demands on students and joining "like institutions" a lot as they trample collegiality and old relationships and rivalries by criss-crossing time zones.

Perhaps the ground would stop shaking so much if there weren’t so many schools jumping from conference to conference.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.