As we strategy an period the place USC kicking off at 9 a.m. Pacific time in freezing November East Lansing temperatures is a really practical and probably biennial state of affairs, let’s take a look at the choices for school athletics going ahead.
This transfer from USC and UCLA really can’t be understated in its impression. The mud had largely settled from Texas and Oklahoma’s transfer to the SEC, because the Large XII was in a position to fill their spots with strong up-and-coming backup choices, however this? That is, as my colleague Eric Blum (and earlier than him, R.E.M.) put it, the tip of the world — or, regional conferences, not less than — as we all know it.
The next eventualities revolve across the idea of soccer being the deciding consider convention realignment choices, which it largely has been to this point. I perceive that Duke and Kansas have lots to supply in March, however come fall, they gained’t make the lower.
Begin your Pac-12 eulogies
Realistically, the Pac-12 doesn’t make it out of this. With regional loyalties so casually tossed apart, Washington, Oregon, and even Utah are actually seemingly open to exploring different choices if not eagerly procuring their packages round. The SEC, now not the one convention with 16 groups, will seemingly be trying westward to increase (Manifest Future, anybody?) in addition to eastward to Clemson, Florida State, and Miami. Whereas solely one of many three faculties has seen constant success in current seasons, the manufacturers and fanbases can be large steals now that it’s a free-for-all.
If, say, Washington and Oregon head to the Large Ten and the SEC grabs Utah, the Pac-12 is left with an entire lot of nobodies. It turns into a Group of 5 convention at that time, and with their media rights deal expiring in 2024, they’re just about achieved for.
So there are a few choices right here. The remaining Pac-12 may successfully merge with the Large XII, remaining vaguely in the identical area (largely west of the Mississippi, not less than), to create a 3rd so-called superconference. However it wouldn’t have the ability to compete with the powerhouses within the Large Ten and the brand new SEC, and would stay the little brother with no signature manufacturers.
An alternative choice pops up if the ACC falls.
Et tu, Sankey?
If the SEC is ready to pull two of the three ACC faculties I discussed, the ACC can also be achieved for. Some faculties — Duke, Louisville, North Carolina — will go working to the Large Ten, who will seemingly take them for his or her basketball packages and educational requirements. Boston Faculty can be accepted into the fray, as would Pittsburgh and Syracuse. It might primarily be divided at a coast-to-coast parallel line. Large Ten and Southeastern Convention can be gross misnomers.
At that time, the remainder of the Large XII and Pac-12 faculties must be a part of one of many two main conferences lest they threat changing into a minor league inside soccer, which might come at an enormous price to the schools’ backside traces. Even Notre Dame should, in the end, lastly be a part of a convention.
That is the conclusion that many see as inevitable — two super-conferences monopolizing faculty sports activities with little regard for what meaning for his or her non-football packages. One FOX deal, one ESPN deal, and that’s that.
However how will scheduling work?
Nicely, the best way I see it, with conferences that will theoretically embrace 20 to 30 groups, you’d should create divisions. Regional divisions, maybe. The Large Ten West can be out within the Rockies. The SEC East would contain just about all the current SEC. Perhaps the faculty soccer playoff appears to be like just like the east and west winners of each superconferences going through off and the winners of these enjoying for the nationwide title.
That is, after all, extremely ironic. Whereas the cash and publicity are on the heart of a whole lot of these choices, creating these divisions inside superconferences would actually simply recreate conferences in the best way that they have been meant to be: you largely journey to different faculties in your area, making it simple on the student-athletes, with a number of huge video games throughout the nation that attract a extra geographically numerous viewership.
This will likely be one of many funniest full-circle moments of all time, naturally.
What a couple of complete restructure?
An alternative choice — one which’s much less prone to occur, seeing as there is no such thing as a better energy in faculty sports activities other than the NCAA, who doesn’t decide convention construction — can be a league of, say, 30 faculties, during which the underside 4 or six face regulation every year, and the highest 4 or six of a secondary league can be up for promotion every year.
Nevertheless, this may require lots of people agreeing on a whole lot of issues, one thing that the faculty sports activities world is known for not with the ability to do (see: growth talks). And none of those conclusions will see the sunshine of day in full pressure for one more few years, so for now, we’ve bought to embrace the chaos. Countdown to 2022’s opening kick: 57 days.
