I really shouldn’t get involved in this whole college sports “realignment” fiasco.
Nobody comes to this particular blog for sports stuff. There are, from what I gather, at least one or two other websites where those interested in sports might gravitate for their latest “hot stove” insights.
Not that I have insights. No inside info, no breaking news. And by the time I write and edit this bad boy, this’ll be such old news that’s been analyzed and overanalyzed to death.
But The Writing Wombat is where people come for snark, and assuming anybody is going to care about that annual Rutgers vs. Oregon barnburner deserves a shit-ton of snark.
I once opined that the Beavers and Cocks should play in the same conference with Ball State and Sac State. That seems about as random as putting Arizona and Central Florida in the same conference. So consider me an expert.
For you non sports-inclined readers, here’s a quick rejoinder on what the sports landscape looked like up until about five years ago. Then I can better explain just how whack-a-doodle it’s become.
Most sport leagues are divided up for geographic purposes. The reason you always hear about the Boston Red Sox playing the New York Yankees, or the Chicago Bears’ long history versus the Green Bay Packers, or the grueling rivalry between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors, is because they 1) play each other more often and 2) are vying to “win” a four to seven team division.
Even international sports divvies up by region. Sure, you might only pay attention to the World Cup, but to get to that World Cup, the teams have to play through regional tournaments. Maybe it’s not fair that the Dutch need to power through the Germans, French, and Italians to make the World Cup while the United States’ gauntlet includes that powerhouse of Trinidad & Tobago, but come on. If the U.S. had to play real countries, we’d never make the tournament and then FIFA would lose out on a bunch of advertisement dollars.
Not that money ever drives any sporting decisions. Qatar totally got the World Cup because of its vaunted sporting history. And Washington is totally right next to Pennsylvania.
The main reason for these divisions comes down to travel costs and fatigue. If the Los Angeles Dodgers get on a post-game plane in San Francisco or San Diego, they might be home by 1:00 am. If the flight’s from D.C. or Philly, it ain’t landing till tomorrow morning.
And bear in mind, those major league players aren’t flying Southwest. They’re got their own chartered flights. The college kids don’t. Sucks to be them. I’d tell them to unionize, but they aren’t making any money so no union would want them.
The divisions work out great for fans, too. The closeness of your rivals makes it easier to travel to those away games. It also means you’re more likely to intersperse with their fans while in all walks of life, which increases engagement.
College sports used to follow a similar pattern. There were twenty or so regional divisions. Most of these divisions overlapped with each other so the universities that were more focused on sports didn’t dominate those silly universities that care about those non-athletic weirdos walking around their campus quoting Kierkegaard.
For instance, on the west coast, we had the likes of USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Oregon in the top division, called everything from the Pac (or Pacific)-8 to Pac-10 to Pac-12, changing the name to match the number of teams. Put a pin in that for later.
The second level of West Coast teams play (at least for the last twenty years) in the Mountain West Conference. You might not have heard of all of their colleges, but you’re at least aware of their locations. San Diego, San Jose, Fresno, Reno, Vegas, Boise. Even Hawaii, which contains both Mountains and the West, but isn’t what normally equated with the western mountains. Rockies and Sierras, yes. Volcanos, not so much.
Below the Mountain West is a handful of conferences, depending on the sport. My alma mater, UC Davis, is in the Big West for basketball but the Big Sky for football.
Yes, colleges can be in different conferences for different sports. This might be something these universities might want to consider before the Pac-12 goes belly up for good.
Many other major and minor conferences spread out across the country. Historically, the Big 10 had its foothold in the Midwest while the Big 12 catered to the Great Plains. I’ll not insult your intelligence by explaining where you might find the Southeastern and Atlantic Coast conferences. All these conferences have unaffiliated conferences “underneath” them.
These conferences have never been particularly static. Conferences poach from other major or minor conferences. Returning back to the Pacific, the Pac-8 added two Arizona teams to become the Pac-10, then Colorado (from the Big 12) and Utah (from the “underling” Mountain West) made it twelve. Colleges would base their decision to stay or leave on recruiting, as opposed to money because, last I checked, universities, particularly the public ones, are supposed to be… non-profit?
The difference between the old poaching and the new is that it used to be on the periphery. Does Colorado fit better with the West Coast than with the Great Plains? Once they legalized pot, I feel like they’re more likely to entice an Oregonian to attend than an Oklahoman. Nebraska followed their move by bolting in the opposite direction toward the Big Ten. Someone from Chicago might not consider Nebraska to be in the Midwest, but being in a conference with Minnesota and Iowa makes a certain amount of sense for Nebraska.
This Nebraska defection was when the conference names started to make no sense. The Big 12, having lost two members, now had ten schools. The Big 10, meanwhile, which had actually had eleven teams for some time (but Big 11 sounds stupid) now had twelve. Everybody just shrugged and figured there was no reason to have institutes of higher learning be able to finish the Sesame Street counting song.
Not sure where the wheels came off. A few years ago, the Big 12 lost its flagship schools, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC. This was the first time it seemed to be about money more than wins. The SEC is, far and away, the best conference in the country. Both schools moved from a conference where they were the preeminent power, virtually assured of winning their conference and being in the playoffs to a conference where they’ll be lucky to compete for fourth place. Trust me, Texas ain’t stealing the top recruits from Alabama any time soon.
Still, you don’t have to squint hard to see Texas and Oklahoma being at home in a conference named Southeast.
Then, about a year ago, USC (that’s the University of Southern California, in case you were wondering) and UCLA (the last two letters of which stand for Los Angeles, also in Southern California) decided that, instead of playing in a conference named for the ocean they played next to, they wanted to play most of their games three time zones away. Both schools joined the Big 10 and, starting next season, will be nestled into the standings with the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State. Again, that Penn is short for Pennsylvania.
The Pac-12, which had just lost two of its premier programs (well, one premier programs plus UCLA), reacted by doing… well, not really much of anything. If you ignore a problem long enough, it’ll just go away. Unfortunately for the Pac-12, the “it” that their ignorance made go away was six more colleges and a t.v. deal.
Colorado left first, returning to the Big 12 from whence it came, although now that Big 12 doesn’t have Nebraska, Texas, or Oklahoma, so they’ve got to be feeling good about their chances. There were rumors that the Pac-12, now down to nine members, might bring in San Diego State, or maybe Boise State, to get back up to ten or twelve. But first, they needed to figure out that whole t.v. thing.
They were finally on the cusp of a deal with AppleTV. Don’t bother looking for AppleTV on your cable or satellite offerings. Nothing screams great sport viewing like a service primarily watched on one’s phone or tablet. Brilliant strategy, especially once we learned, after its demise, that they turned down deals from ESPN, Fox, CBS, and probably every other network in order to be on a platform that fewer than half of Americans have. Glad it ended up falling apart, because I’m a Google guy and I didn’t want to have to choose between Android and football.
Then, within a few hours of each other on a recent Friday, five more teams left the conference. The three easternmost teams followed Colorado into the Big 12, while Oregon and Washington followed their L.A. brethren into the Midwest. If anything, they did those schools a solid with this move, as now they’ll have a few more games in their time zone.
If you’re keeping count, the Pac-12 is now down to four teams. They’ve got a lot more problems to worry about beyond their name, which is why I can’t find a Pac-4 shirt anywhere. Unfortunately, some of them are still planning on leaving. Personally, I’d stay in the conference if I were them, assuming the conference champion still gets an automatic bid to the Rose Bowl and March Madness. That path just got a hell of a lot easier.
But nope, the Pac-12 is officially in “Last Person to Leave, Turn the Lights Out” territory. Oregon State and Washington State are being mentioned as joining that “minor league” Mountain West Conference they’ve scoffed at for years. Cal and Stanford won’t slum it down there, though. So those two schools, which sit on the two sides of the San Francisco Bay, are flirting with joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. You know this whole DeSantis/Newsom feud is getting serious when Berkeley and Florida State consider themselves natural rivals.
That move was blocked by some of the ACC teams who finally decided to look at a map and realize that, if the S.F. teams were playing on the east coast, then the east coast teams would also have to play out west. Nobody wants to start their games at 10:00 pm. That aversion will cost at least a few more million to overcome.
So here’s your updated crib sheet: The Big Ten has eighteen members, the Big 12 has sixteen. The Atlantic Coast might stretch to San Francisco. Too bad there’s no Canadian Conference or they could extend an invitation to Cuba.
Football will be fine. They play one game a week, usually on a weekend, and the millions of dollars they earn in t.v. revenue can cover some charter flights. The real problem with this realignment is that the other sports have to follow suit. What’s it going to be like for a baseball or volleyball player from Washington who has to play a Tuesday game in New Jersey and a Thursday game in Ohio while also attending classes.
I’m sure that badminton scholarship sophomore is going to be absolutely thrilled with this new set-up. After all, their college is getting millions of dollars. From which the average student gets…. A few more books? Maybe faster internet? Nah. Any money will be invested back into the football stadium. Or maybe a few extra million dollars in the pocket of a “non-profit” regent.
But it’s all about that education, right?
The Writing Wombat 