Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[ManillaToad]

Big XII after Texas and OU announced they were leaving:

 

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, Gary said:

 

 

Return of the Holy War between Utah and BYU

[kolob]

On 8/4/2023 at 9:32 PM, GDAWG said:

Return of the Holy War between Utah and BYU

 

As a fellow Utahn ... I'm not sure how excited I am for this?

 

[DCarp1231]

Mizzou’s Head Football Coach made some interesting points about realignment-

Quote

"I thought the transfer window, I thought the portal was closed. Oh, that's just for the student-athletes. The adults in the room get to do whatever they want, apparently.

"My question is: Did we count the cost? And I’m not talking about the financial cost. I’m talking about: Did we count the cost for the student-athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student-athletes? We’re talking about a football decision, they based [it] on football, but what about softball and baseball, who have to travel cross-country? Did we ask about the cost to them?

"Do we know what the No. 1 indicator or symptom of or cause of mental health [issues] is? It’s lack of rest and sleep. Traveling in those baseball, softball games, those people, they travel commercial, they get done playing, they gotta go to the airport, they come back, it’s 3 or 4 in the morning, they gotta go to class. I mean, did we ask any of them?"

He’s right. Student Athletes really weren’t considered in this at all. Especially those outside of football.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/missouris-eli-drinkwitz-asks-a-good-question-about-athletes-mental-health-after-big-tens-latest-expansion-224121448.html

[aawagner011]

10 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Mizzou’s Head Football Coach made some interesting points about realignment-

He’s right. Student Athletes really weren’t considered in this at all. Especially those outside of football.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/missouris-eli-drinkwitz-asks-a-good-question-about-athletes-mental-health-after-big-tens-latest-expansion-224121448.html

I agree. Who is looking forward to midweek Oregon at Ohio State volleyball? UCLA at Rutgers basketball? Maryland at Washington softball?  Football will likely be fine because they’ll only have six road trips in the regular season. College sports worked great as a regional competition with the occasional road trip. For other sports, none of this was seemingly thought out for the impacts on the players doing the traveling. These kids still have to go to class.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, DCarp1231 said:

Mizzou’s Head Football Coach made some interesting points about realignment-

He’s right. Student Athletes really weren’t considered in this at all. Especially those outside of football.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/missouris-eli-drinkwitz-asks-a-good-question-about-athletes-mental-health-after-big-tens-latest-expansion-224121448.html

 

To play devil's advocate - the student-athletes (albeit not every single one of them) bitched and moaned for years about wanting to more money, be in ads, do sponsorships, sign deals, have more exposure, be on the national stage and so on. It's a little late to backtrack after fighting for so long to be treated like a pro athlete now that the reality of that arrangement is here.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, solvetica said:

 

To play devil's advocate - the student-athletes (albeit not every single one of them) bitched and moaned for years about wanting to more money, be in ads, do sponsorships, sign deals, have more exposure, be on the national stage and so on. It's a little late to backtrack after fighting for so long to be treated like a pro athlete now that the reality of that arrangement is here.

 

I'm not sure how many athletes on the diving or field hockey teams were complaining,  They're the ones really taking the short-end of the stick here since (I assume) they are expected to go to class (and probably want to earn a degree) but have their travel schedule turned upside down.

 

That being said, no football coach (especially one with a $24M contract) should be opening his mouth right now since they're all about to get paid so much more than the absurd amounts that they already do.  Seriously - the guy is making 24 million dollars and wants to complain about anything?

 

Maybe schools could have two athletic departments.  One for big-revenue sports, and one for "everything else".  The super conferences could be for the "big revenue" sports, and then regional conferences could form for everything else.

 

Or maybe the super conferences could make scheduling agreements with each other for the "everything else" sports so that they can play more regionally.  

[oldschoolvikings]

And to play devils advocate about something else that keeps coming up …

 

Ohio State joined what would eventually become the Big Ten in 1912, I believe.  I’m wondering what was more difficult… traveling between Columbus, Ohio to Iowa City in 1912 or Traveling from Rutgers to Los Angeles in 2024?

[Sec19Row53]

3 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

And to play devils advocate about something else that keeps coming up …

 

Ohio State joined what would eventually become the Big Ten in 1912, I believe.  I’m wondering what was more difficult… traveling between Columbus, Ohio to Iowa City in 1912 or Traveling from Rutgers to Los Angeles in 2024?

Also devil's advocate - student athletes (ugh) have NEVER been a concern of conference makeup.

[DCarp1231]

This is embarrassingly insane. Unless a miracle happens, the PAC-12 4 absolutely has to merge with the Mountain West to remain relevant.

[Unocal]

These super conferences are going to do more harm than good

[DG_ThenNowForever]

6 minutes ago, Unocal said:

These super conferences are going to do more harm than good

 

To whom or what?

[Sec19Row53]

3 hours ago, DCarp1231 said:

This is embarrassingly insane. Unless a miracle happens, the PAC-12 4 absolutely has to merge with the Mountain West to remain relevant.

How would merging with the Mountain West make them relevant?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

9 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

How would merging with the Mountain West make them relevant?

 

Indeed. The PAC 12/4 is just the post-Miami/Syracuse/BC Big East. A once-proud conference destroyed for football matters.

[DCarp1231]

6 hours ago, Sec19Row53 said:

How would merging with the Mountain West make them relevant?

Geographically, it’s the next closest conference to them and instead of the last four teams disbanding into different conferences, it makes the most sense.

[McCall]

35 minutes ago, DCarp1231 said:

Geographically, it’s the next closest conference to them and instead of the last four teams disbanding into different conferences, it makes the most sense.

That just makes it the Mountain West under the Pac-# name. Wouldn't really change much and be no different than if those four schools actually joined the Mountain West.

[Cosmic]

14 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

And to play devils advocate about something else that keeps coming up …

 

Ohio State joined what would eventually become the Big Ten in 1912, I believe.  I’m wondering what was more difficult… traveling between Columbus, Ohio to Iowa City in 1912 or Traveling from Rutgers to Los Angeles in 2024?

In their first year in the Big 10, 6 out of their 7 games were at home! 

[DCarp1231]

9 minutes ago, McCall said:

That just makes it the Mountain West under the Pac-# name. Wouldn't really change much and be no different than if those four schools actually joined the Mountain West.

[BBTV]

If one of the summer collegiate baseball leagues changed its name to "American League", that wouldn't make it a major league.

 

It's not really a Ship of Prometheus situation either, since they're rebuilding the ship with cheap plastic.  There's only 4 power conferences now, and there's nothing the PAC# can do to change that.

[Sec19Row53]

2 hours ago, DCarp1231 said:

Geographically, it’s the next closest conference to them and instead of the last four teams disbanding into different conferences, it makes the most sense.

None of that makes it relevant.