I do not pick up the pen today to write about United States vs. Donald Trump. I don’t know about you but I tend to find all of this overwhelming at times. So I would rather talk about something important.
College sports.
In the last 10 days the college conferences map went kablooey to use the technical word. Or kerflooey as an old country lawyer of my acquaintance used to say. Either will work nicely under the circumstances.
First known leader of men Coach Prime went kablooey on his own roster at Colorado. He pretty much sent the players he inherited to the transfer portal while bringing in his own players. This used to be known, in the not too distant past, as “cheating.” It can also be considered as being unfair to some, if not all, of the “student-athletes” he cashiered on a wholesale basis.
Which raises the question: Do they not have an athletic director over there?
Then no sooner had the final whistle blown at the spring game when the Buffaloes announced they were exiting the PAC-12 to return to the Big -12 from whence they had fled some 10-15 years ago. This gives me the opportunity to paraphrase the joke when Colorado went to the PAC-12: The dope in the Big 12 just got a lot better. And the Buffs will be joined in their new home by Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
Of course this was hot on the heels of USC and UCLA bolting to join the SEC Conference (as many fans and some coaches refer to it). And not too long afterwards Oregon and Washington hooked up with the Big 12 leaving Stanford and Cal (along with Washington State and Oregon State) to hold the bag in the now Little 4 formerly known mainly to itself as the “Conference of Champions.” Supposedly Leland’s Farm and the Golden Bears are hiking their skirts at the ACC. We’ll see. Stanford hasn’t been very good at anything other than golf and tennis in sometime. Cal is even worse and their athletic department is drowning in red ink. Plus their respective alumni bases are pretty snooty. Worse than Duke’s even.
Of course this makes no sense geographically. I mean, Seattle to Piscataway is a long haul. As has been pointed out while this may not be as big a deal to the football teams that play once a week, it will be pretty onerous to the other team sports that are supposed to play ball once or twice a week in some far off clime while keeping up with the books being “student-athletes” and all. Is this fair to them?
Here’s the answer. This is a football thing. And the the powers that be in the Power 5 conferences and ESPN/Disney/FOX along with the old networks don’t much care about such picayune matters as travel arrangements for the swim team. Because let’s face it. Football is a core function for many DI schools, much more important in the great scope of things than the music department. And now some of the players are finally getting paid. As in over the table.
Professional sports. And it’s all about football. Pure and simple.
What’s next? Here’s my guess and this guess was unthinkable to me just a week ago. Do you think the media companies that are pumping out the money that prompted the kablooey would rather show, say, Tennessee and Vanderbilt or Oklahoma versus Tennessee? Ohio State against Northwestern or Ohio State against UCLA?
Could Vandy and Northwestern get kicked out of the SEC and the Big Ten? After all, both were founding members of those two conferences. What about tradition and shared history? The answer may be “who cares?”
Nothing would surprise me.
If the ACC gives the cold shoulder to Cal and Stanford maybe Vanderbilt and Northwestern can join them in forming a new conference.
They could call it “The Smart Guys Plus 2 Others Conference.”
Nothing would surprise me.
