A Texas school is a menber of the Big East Conference. Colorado is heading to the Pac-12. With those three rivers running through it, Pittsburgh must've thought that was ample reason to join the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The geographic and financial alliances that gave distinct identities to the highest levels of U.S. college sports are on the verge of collapse (though Thursday's actions by the misnomered Big 12 might be a temporary stop-gap).
Regardless of what - if anything - happens next, the realignment of schools that participate in major college sports has radically altered the way the games are played, and how fans and college student bodies experience this. What do you think about it all?
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To say that realignment "has radically altered the way games are played, and how fans and college student bodies experience this" is a vast overstatement.
ReplyDeleteAs this is the first year of the new Pac-12 and Big 10, we obviously need time to judge how the effects of Nebraska, Colorado and Utah's moves.
However, the 2004-05 realignments involving the Big East and ACC didn't dramatically alter the NCAA landscape that many thought it would.
Yes, Virginia Tech has dominated the ACC football scene since. However, they haven't reached a national title game, and none of Miami, VT or BC have won a national title in any other sport.
In my opinion, Texas A&M's apparent move to the SEC is the only one that particularly stands out in the last month. The Big 12 (er.. 10) was a conference that relied quite heavily on geographical rivalries, with A&M being involved in a good number of them.
SEC schools are not afraid to schedule difficult out-of-conference rivalry games. Florida-FSU, Georgia-GT and Clemson-South Carolina are some examples of this.
The question I have is how A&M will choose to schedule these games. I have no doubt that the school will make Texas an annual opponent, but what about Baylor?
The first "Battle of the Brazos" was in 1899, and A&M and Baylor meeting 107 times since then. Will the powers-that-be at A&M schedule two Big 12 opponents a season?
In terms of the ACC, Syracuse and Pitt will undoubtedly improve the conference's basketball strength. The Big East has been hailed in recent years for how good their conference is (despite a lack of postseason success, but that's another story), and I think that the ACC will take over as the new "deepest" conference in basketball, after a lack of depth in the past few years.
Something that hasn't been discussed much is the effect that the moves will have on non-revenue sports. Syracuse's move to the ACC will be fantastic for lacrosse. The established ACC teams such as Maryland, Duke, UVA and UNC will benefit from annual regular season meetings with the perennial powerhouse that has won 16 national titles (including five since 2000).
It's not fair to pass any kind of judgement on the effects that realignment will have on college sports. Anything right now is pure speculation based on absolutely no evidence.
The worst part of all this is that I've had to read more whiney articles about football needing a playoff system.
ACC: “Ok, ok, we’ll take you in the front; you will fit right in with Duke and UNC.
ReplyDeleteSyracuse: “Suck it UCONN!”
ACC: “And we’ll take you all the way in the back. You have potential.”
Pittsburg: *starting to tear up* “We would like to thank all our fan for making this possible an---“
ACC: "That’s enough, keep it together. Ok, anyways, everyone else make a line right here and we will evaluate you all for our last few spots. Thank you. Oh and West Virginia, don’t even bother. "
Welcome to college football realignment! Where desperation lives.
Ok, so maybe the process isn’t exactly as I just described, but over the past few months, the switching of allegiances in college football has become a spectacle in its own. As spectators, we don’t find ourselves asking who will be this year’s Heisman winner or national champion but rather, “where will we end up?”
It’s one big distraction to a beautiful game, a distraction that is changing a game built on passion and tradition into one built on greed. Let’s not sugarcoat this; these super-conferences are being created for one purpose. That purpose is money.
Football is a gazillion dollar industry (rough estimate) that has replaced baseball as our national pastime (get over it, it’s true). Sadly, this realignment reflects that, creating a bigger issue, that the actual sport is being placed in the back burner over revenue.
But what saddens me the most is the potentially slow collapse of some pretty big conferences (Big East, Big 12). There is also the potential to lose great rivalries between programs, regardless if they are well-known or not. College football is for the fans and the student-athletes that play it, not television contracts and brand image.
And don’t think conference realignment only effects football. No, the effects are felt by all the sports a university competes in. Think about this, if the Big East no longer exists, what will happen to Georgetown basketball? Where will they call home?
I’m not saying all of college realignment is wrong. There is the possibility of new rivals and traditions being born, the boost to conferences other sports (Syracuse and Pittsburgh basketball in the ACC? Sign me up) and sure, I will admit a little more revenue for universities can be used for upgrades and new equipment.
The biggest positive of it though is that the ACC survived (for now). There was loads of speculation that we would be raided and picked apart. We sometimes forget that we not only represent our school, but our conference as well. Better them then us right?
So as the tectonic plates of the college football landscape shift and alter, we as fans will feel the vibrations for years to come. Let’s just hope when the dust settles, we’re still standing.
The Atlantic Coast Conference knows what it's doing.
ReplyDeleteHistorically the greatest basketball conference, the ACC has been surpassed in recent years. While schools like NC State and Maryland have been great at times, both seem to be stuck in a long rut. The more recent additions of Miami and Virginia Tech were based around football, and their basketball programs are nothing to write home about.
These additions will certainly change that. While Pittsburgh and Syracuse will bring some great football to the ACC, their basketball programs will add a huge boost to a conference defined currently by two powers, North Carolina and Duke. This will give a huge reputation boost to the entire conference, and move it back toward the top.
As for the Big East, the move has crippled them. A massive basketball-only conference, the departure of two of their football programs will likely force other football schools to find new conferences to continue making top dollar by playing important opponents.
Because football is the top moneymaker for colleges, the movement will not be over. The Big East football schools will be looking for new opponents, and it's basketball schools may be left out in the cold. The Big 12 is rumored to begin falling apart, with Texas A&M already defecting to the SEC.
The likely outcome is several super-conferences, and the ACC is making one of the first moves to ensure it isn't picked apart by the Big Ten or SEC. The move keeps current rivalries intact, and secures the conferences future as one of the premiere basketball conferences.
Syracuse and Pittsburgh are going to the ACC; Texas A&M is eying the SEC; and Texas and Oklahoma are likely Pac-12 bound. It’s the like the NCAA is mixing up a stick of Starbursts, but the big schools get all the pinks.
ReplyDeleteThe age of conferences by geography is long gone. The ACC started moving in that direction in 2004 when it welcomed Boston College and Miami in 2005 to the conference whose headquarters lie in Richmond, Virginia. Both schools are more than 600 miles away Richmond.
The Big East followed suit just last year when it persuaded Texas Christian University, the only school west of Milwaukee, to join. But as conferences extend throughout the country, a fundamental element of college sports suffers: rivalry. With Texas and Texas A&M splitting up, for example, what’s going to happen to the t-shirts like, “If football is life in Texas…life must be terrible in Austin”
There’s a reason why North Carolina-Duke is such a heated rivalry. They are eight miles away from each other. The same goes for Alabama-Auburn, Texas-Texas A&M, and Arizona-Arizona State. But rivalries like these will take the back seat with schools now favoring the dollar signs.
It’s a game of money. And thanks to massive TV deals, the bigger conferences have more of it. The Pac-12 leads the nation with nearly $250 million in annual revenue from TV deals. Closely following the Pac-12 is the Big 10, then the SEC, the ACC, and finally the Big 12 at $145 million. The Big East brings up the rear of the most name-worthy conferences with just $33 million. As the Big East’s television contract ends next year, they are expected to double their annual revenue. But, if you quickly do the math, this is still less than half that of the Big 12, and less than a fourth of the Pac-12 (Business Insider).
If the conference re-structuring continues in its current path, it won’t just be small conferences that suffer. It’ll be the fans.
The history of the NCAA has shown us repeatedly that nothing stands in the way of progress, especially when that progress is fiscally driven. The official NCAA basketball tournament began in 1939 with just eight teams. By 1975, the field had grown to 32. Ten years later it grew again to 64. Currently the field is set at 68, but last season, rumors persisted about a possible move toward 96 teams.
ReplyDeleteWhy expand? Why not?
The college basketball tournament generates obscene amounts of revenue for many involved (except maybe for the “student athlete”). Revenue the FBI estimates was around $2.5 billion in 2009, according to Forbes (this includes office pools and other betting, not just revenue for the NCAA).
So it should come as no surprise that college football is seeking to create “Super conferences” to maximize potential earnings. Although PAC-12 expansion talks ended last week because Texas refused to share revenue from its $300 million deal with ESPN for the Longhorn Network, some think super conferences are inevitable. And hyperbole abounds.
“The pressure to win will only increase [because of Super conferences], which means cheating will soar to new heights,” said Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald.
If this was court I’d object because Goodman is assuming facts not in evidence.
“If they care about the traditions of college football, the futures of their student-athletes and the integrity of their universities — and, based on the evidence, I don’t think they really do — university presidents should use this past month as a wake-up call,” he continued.
Let’s slow down a little. Conference realignment isn’t going to jeopardize the “futures of [anyone’s] student-athletes.” Schools that have huge rivalries will still play; they just won’t be in the same conference.
Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim was on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption last week talking about his school’s move from the Big East to the ACC. He talked about his school still trying to schedule Georgetown, a Big East rival for decades.
Texas and Oklahoma’s Red River Rivalry game will still be played even if the two schools go to different conferences. Why, because there is too much money in these rivalries not to play them.
Conferences have realigned before. Notre Dame joined the Big East in basketball in 1995, a strange move at the time because they remained independent in college football. Everyone survived; student-athletes still had futures.
Sure, this whole conference realignment scheme is a money grab, an opportunity for the NCAA to further fill their coffers with money earned on the backs of exploited “student-athletes.” But, college sports aren’t going to be ruined, but maybe the NCAA will be.
Maybe this will be the first step in dropping the phony notion of “student-athlete,” and call them what they really are “student-employees.” Maybe all the increased travel “student-employees” will have to do, especially for a team like Texas Christian University who will join the Big East in football, will lead to players being paid. The “student-athlete” argument gets harder to justify when TCU players have to travel east and still find the time and energy to attend classes when they return to Fort Worth.
Banks might have thought they were too big to fail before the crisis hit a few years ago. Are these conferences exhibiting the same hubris? Could their size eventually bring the NCAA to its knees?
Some have suggested the uber conferences might become so powerful they would no longer need the NCAA and could leave its authority. Maybe we should be careful what we wish for. If we thought college athletic corruption was bad with the NCAA, how bad would it be without it?
Fans and college sports enthusiasts all over the country are suggesting that the conference shake-ups are all in an effort to make more money. And, while I agree that money makes the world go ‘round, I think changes are being made based on panic attacks.
ReplyDeleteChad McEvoy, coordinator of the sports management program at Illinois State tweeted, “This round of conference realignment is much more about security and fear than it is money.”
And he couldn’t be more right.
Teams are jumping from conference to conference in angst that there will one day be four 16-team conferences, and when Pitt and Syracuse joined the ACC, it became almost inevitable that the conference would join the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-whatever in the league of super-conferences.
It’s not about how much more this team is going to make from football games or that team is going to make from basketball games. It’s about not wanting to be left behind when the remaining conferences get picked apart. Nobody wants to be that kid who gets picked last in gym class.
But in the end, the ones who have the most to lose are the fans. In most cases, the rivalry seed was planted long enough ago for there to already be a giant oak tree, and chopping that tree down would just leave a gaping hole in the yard. The conference shake-ups don’t mean much more than a lot of broken hearted fans.
And more money, of course.
When news leaked last Sunday that Pittsburgh and Syracuse planned to join the ACC, I did what I always do when I hear about something that’ll affect the makeup of the Big East: I called Brandon McCoy.
ReplyDeleteBrandon is my sister’s boyfriend of six years, and he’s effectively my older brother. He bullies me, gives me advice, and basically fulfills all the stereotypic responsibilities of an older sibling.
But outside of dating my sister, he’s also a die-hard West Virginia Mountaineers fan. Hailing from the Mountain State, Brandon embodies everything great about Mountie pride. His room is draped in gold and navy banners. His ringtone is the West Virginia fight song. He even wears a Mountaineers T-shirt as an undershirt wherever he goes, just for “good luck.”
So when Brandon answered my call on Sunday, I wasn’t surprised by the tone of his voice. He sounded down. His characteristic cheer was absent, and he stumbled through his words. When I asked if he was sick, he simply uttered a “Naw.” Pretty sure I knew what was ailing him, I asked the obvious question: “So you pretty bummed Pitt’s leaving the Big East?” After a long, drawn out pause, he muttered, “Yeah…this is so stupid. Money ruins everything.”
I could hear the pain in his voice. It was palpable. For Brandon, and for the rest of Mountaineer Nation, Pitt’s exit is more than conference realignment. It’s the death of an era.
Since 1989—when Brandon was just a tot roughhousing on his ranch in Lavalette, W.V.—the Mountaineers and Panthers have engaged in an intensely bitter rivalry. Bowl games have been at stake. Conference titles have been up for grabs. NCAA Tournament bids have hung in the balance.
And although the material prizes have varied, one thing has remained constant: when West Virginia faces Pittsburgh, pride is on the line. Not school pride. Not athletic pride. Something much more personal: regional pride.
Sports are a microcosm of humanity. And when we play them—or root for them—we give ourselves up to the team. We cheer for more than a player in a uniform. We cheer for what that player represents. For Brandon and his fellow West Virginians, they support the Mountaineers because—to them—the Mountaineers embody the great state they’re proud to call “home.”
And in the same vain, when they unabashedly ridicule Pitt, it’s because the Panthers embody something they were raised to hate: the city of Pittsburgh. They could care less about Pitt’s academics or they’re numerous athletic accomplishments. Pitt’s in Pittsburgh, and therefore they hate it. It’s that simple.
So when Pitt and Syracuse decided to bolt the Big East—a decision that could ultimately leave the conference in ruins—for a bigger paycheck from advertisers and television promoters, I’m forced to agree with my sister’s boyfriend.
This is stupid. Money does ruin everything.
Sure, West Virginia and Pitt can try to keep the rivalry alive by scheduling nonconference matchups. But it’ll never be the same. There’s something special about beating a conference rival, especially one with decades of history to draw from. It’s like giving your little brother a noogie. You’re imposing your dominance on him, and you still feel content with yourself because the two of you are so closely connected.
With the near-constant news of schools ditching their regionally-based conferences to play against schools half a country away, that connectedness is being torn apart. When Pitt’s move is finalized and it’s a member of the ACC, Panther-Mountaineers games will be shells of their former selves. It’ll be akin to stepping into a ring to box your childhood neighbor. It’s awkward.
So as we all wade through the stacks of press releases that are sure to emerge with the continued conference realignments, let’s try to keep our focus where it needs to be: on the fan.
All of the talk about contracts and incentives aren’t real. What’s real is how Brandon’s voice sounded on the phone last Sunday.
With all the recent talk of switch-ups in several major NCAA conferences, I can’t help but be intrigued with this news. Especially with the prospect of Pittsburgh and Syracuse being added to the ACC, I think that this would promote exciting new rivalries. We all know the big rivalries between Maryland/UNC/Duke in basketball and Virginia/Virginia Tech in football, but I think that it would promote even better competition between athletics to add new teams to these rivalries. Both of these teams are usually strong in both football and basketball, and it seems fitting for Syracuse to come to the ACC where lacrosse thrives and they can fit right in. Both schools are close enough in proximity to still be considered “Atlantic” though they might not be on the coast.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, I do still have some reservations about switching up athletic conferences both in the ACC and in general. One of the best parts about the ACC is that we’re used to the same teams from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, as well as Boston College. The ACC already expanded previously, adding teams from the Big East and they’re dangerously close to having too many teams. By having these “super conferences,” it makes the rivalries great between the conferences, but I think that overall competition suffers because mediocre teams in a small conference can be one of the highly talked about national teams who get in a really good bowl just because they play well in a conference that they’re much too good for. On the other hand, great teams in difficult conferences may falter throughout the season. By having extremely large conferences, this also makes it so that not all the teams in these conferences, including the ACC, can even play each other in one season, and I think that this takes away from being able to look at a conference as a whole.
In a recent article from The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/sports/ncaafootball/after-realignment-jitters-calm-returns-to-college-football.html) , they commented on the different conferences that are most prominently in the news right now. But I think that the most important thing to remember is that it’s not like these things are going to be changing overnight. Obviously, there is a lot of negotiation that goes into the makeup of the different conferences, and if anything, this talk of adjustment is a wakeup call for experts, coaches, fans and others involved with these conferences to really examine what needs to be done to make a decision that’s in the best interest for the teams involved.
Today the South Eastern Conference welcomed its newest member, Texas A&M. The addition increases the SEC’s numbers to 13 with the door open for at least one more. Bringing in A&M gives the league a foothold in the Texas TV market and A&M can step out of big brother University of Texas’ shadow.
ReplyDeleteSuch is the nature of college football these days. Schools seeking shelter with the tectonic plates of football shifting from underneath them. I’m not particularly bothered by all the realignment. As long teams are still squaring off every fall, I’m still going to watch. What’s bothering me about this is the nature of the business being done.
For universities and their presidents who make their money preaching integrity, respect for others and the pursuit of knowledge above all else, it’s pretty sleazy of them to be moving their schools around and blowing up bridges in the process. Shady deals negotiated on the down low, blindsiding conferences with notices of departure all to pull in some more cash seems to be in direct conflict with the moral foundations universities reside on.
My other concern with realignment is if the 16-team superconferences do begin to sprout up, there’s great potential for teams that don’t make the cut to be marginalized in a massive way. Non-automatic qualifying schools have it hard enough, fielding competitive teams, filling the stands and staying in the black. Imagine if the Cincinattis and Kansas States of the world are pushed into a hodgepodge conference without the possibility of an automatic bid to a BCS bowl. The stack of mediocre teams will grow even higher and their programs could suffer tremendously, perhaps all the way to the chopping block.
Whatever the case and wherever these teams go, I’ll still be watching on Saturday’s. Hopefully the dust settles soon and instead of fighting everyone will remember who the real enemy is: the BCS.
The realignment of schools is bittersweet. The change can be seen as a good thing. More competition may be brought to conferences where specific schools have been dominating. Bringing Texas to the ACC will add more excitement to conference play and raise the stakes in the competition. Although it creates interesting matchups it ruins long time rivalries. Imagine if UMD students didn't have a riot in honor of winning....or losing against Duke?
ReplyDeleteThe realignment shows that the NCAA is all about money and not the integrity of the game. The larger the conference you're in the more money that conference makes in television deals, which then gets spread out to the teams in the conference.
There's also the issue of teams from dominant conferences playing a harder schedule, meaning they get picked for the better Bowl games. Boise St. is a great team, but their conference is weak. They go undefeated a lot, but they never make it to the National Championship.
Some big name conferences will have forgotten history because their most biggest teams will leave. I don't think the change is necessary. If it's not broken, don't fix it.
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ReplyDeleteIs tradition going down the drain?
ReplyDeletePac-12? Now, that just sounds weird.
As a former Pac-10 student-athlete and fan, I could not understand the move to becoming the Pac-12. It just doesn’t sound right. Traditions will soon be changing, but what’s tradition if the conferences keep changing?
West Virginia fans are, of course, West Virginia fans. Die-hard WVU fan and senior Lauren Furey was clearly upset about Pittsburgh’s recent move to the ACC because her school can’t play its biggest rival.
She lives and breathes the Mountaineer spirit. Her family alone bought 20 tickets and four parking spots for the Maryland vs. WVU game a week ago.
When I asked her about the switch, she quickly responded, “I don’t even want to talk about it. It just doesn’t mean the same at all.”
It’s not only WVU fans that are upset about the possibility of their traditions changing. This realignment is getting national coverage. But, this change is not preventing schools from playing their rivals. They can still schedule games against each other.
Yet, I do agree with Furey. It doesn’t mean the same. Many college sports fans value tradition and do not accept change very well.
If you haven’t read the latest Phil Taylor article in Sports Illustrated, make sure you do. Realignment madness has surely taken over and he thinks these new conferences were based on the wrong criteria. Trying to generate as much money as possible from college sports seems to be the controlling factor.
All this hype with the realignment made Taylor come up with new conferences that would truly showcase the “like-minded” schools. If college administrators and conference commissioners are already basing their moves on the wrong criteria, they might as well use Taylor’s suggestions.
My personal favorite is the SEC. It’s not the Southeastern Conference, everyone. It’s the new and improved “Stylish Ensemble Conference” with Maryland and Oregon leading with their new uniforms. Fly Ducks, fly! Go Terps, go!
Conference realignment is coming, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.
ReplyDeleteThere were a number of times when it looked as though the forces of good had stopped this detonation of most things traditional and historical from happening.
Texas, a few summers ago, decided to stay put in the Big 12 and remain the key cog in keeping the fragile conference together. Recently, a number of Big 12 schools threatened to sue Texas A&M if they tried to leave the conference for the SEC.
These instances made it look like the realignment/super conference issue would be put to rest. And it was, for about five minutes.
Syracuse and Pittsburgh made their move last week, bolting from the Big East to the ACC. The move’s effect on football is not huge, as neither of the teams has really been anything more than slightly above average lately. But there are big ramifications as far as basketball is concerned, as two of the nation’s top programs over the past decade or so move from one great basketball conference to another.
It may look like a coup for the ACC right now, but remember the last time they poached some schools from the Big East. When Miami and Virginia Tech joined in 2004, and Boston College joined a year later, the conference intended to raise the level of competition in football, by brining in the powerhouse Hurricanes and a consistent program in the Hokies.
Well, that didn’t even really work out that well, as Miami has been an average program although Virginia Tech has fared well in their new conference. But the real crime in that expansion involved tainting the beauty of the ACC basketball schedule in that each team played its other eight ACC comrades twice each season. Now every school has to cram lackluster Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College into their season, at the expense of playing North Carolina or Duke or another historical rival.
At least Pitt and Syracuse are good basketball schools, but their arrivals are going to further muddy up what once was the perfect basketball symmetry as far as scheduling went.
As far as the rest of the nation goes, I think the probable future of super conferences will just ruin some things that are great about college football.
Chief among those things are the rivalries that will be compromised. It’s infuriating to hear Bob Stoops basically say, as the Sooners mull over their future, that not playing Texas every year is not a big deal. Are you serious? After 105 meetings, you’re going to try to make people believe that.
Maybe Stoops is serious. Who knows? Maybe history and tradition is a little too boring and he wants to head to the Pac-12 (that still looks weird to type and sounds weird to say) to get that Oklahoma-USC rivalry going. It’s not to say that that wouldn’t be awesome to watch, but it’s just not the same.
There are only two things that I would change about the current conference makeup right now. First, Boise State should move to a real conference, instead of moving from the kids’ table (the WAC) to the slightly older kids’ table (the Mountain West Conference). I’m tired of hearing them whine after they’re rightfully left out of the national championship game because they only play one or two real teams each year. So they should make a move.
The only other change is that new Big 10 logo. It’s awful.
As this drama filled conference realignment continues, it must be sad for people to watch the game they hold so near and dear to their chips and dip go the way of a foreclosed house.
ReplyDeleteNearly every team is up for grabs and fans don’t know whether their favorite school will be auctioned off to the highest bidder or whether their longing for traditionalism will be enough to persuade the men in charge that something other than money matters.
Even if, for now, the possibility of teams leaving their conferences for more money is just a threat, one day, teams are going to jump ship onto yachts and we may see the creation of an uber-conference. The construction of these super conferences that destroy the regional rivalries and maximize profit may just be the foundation for the creation of a monopoly on college football.
Do the fans matter? Simply put, no, because no matter what fans are still going to watch games, which means conferences will still make money from advertisements.
Marriage is a tradition and we’ve all seen the divorce rates skyrocket over the last few decades. So what makes fans think their love of current conference rivalries is a better reason than a vow before God to stick it out for richer or poorer?
When money talks, tradition takes a back seat. That’s what these conference switch ups are about and no amount of whining about corporate exploitation of players, loss of beloved rivalries and regional ties is going to change that.
Nothing with potential to be a billion dollar industry remains pure forever. What’s happening to college football is the same thing that happened to professional football.
Corporate greed.
On the bright side, bigger conferences mean more money for teams to design ugly uniforms as publicity stunts.