Stop the insanity.
Super conferences benefit no one. Not the new members, not the current ones, not the players and certainly not the fans. The concept will ruin college athletics, as we know it.
Traditions are being cast aside for the promise of a little more money.
Is the slight gain in monetary value worth wrecking decades of tradition? Apparently it is.
Ask Pittsburgh and Syracuse who are bolting from the Big East to the ACC. They were willing to part with their former conference where classic rivalries with Georgetown, Uconn and Villanova will now be virtually instinct.
It’s a shame.
Loyalty has been cast aside for greed and I can’t say I’m surprised. College athletics has turned into an out of control cash cow. Universities rely on millions of dollars in revenue football Saturday’s provide. And “hey if we can make a few more bucks let’s switch conferences.”
Conferences were created so schools in a region could compete against each other. They created natural geographical rivalries. Today, you have schools like TCU in the Big East. How does that make a lick of sense?
It’s an uncertain time if you’re a college sports fan. Will my school be in one of these super conferences? Will we be left in the dust?
Athletic directors and college presidents are scrambling to make sure their institution doesn’t miss the bus.
But where is the integrity? Where is the leadership? Someone in the hierarchy of college sports needs to step up and call for an end to this madness. No one in their right mind believes this is a good idea, but the threat of being left out of the fray is causing schools to be proactive in looking for a new conference.
Can we call a truce? Was the old setup really that bad?
The bleeding can stop. On Tuesday, the Pac-12 decided against adding four members from the Big 12. For now.
Let’s face it, if the Big 12 were to collapse, and it sure looks like it will, super conferences will become a reality. The Big East would be the next to go and the ACC, Pac-12, Big Ten and SEC would be the only survivors.
These new bloated conferences will resemble the current Big East. Several elite teams at the top then 10 or so mediocre to bad teams filling out the rest of the league.
Why would a team like Texas A&M want to go to the SEC where they will likely finish at the bottom of the conference year in and year out? It doesn’t make any sense. I guess money really is everything because if the goal is winning that isn’t going to happen.
No one and I mean no one benefits. The elite schools at the top of these new super conferences would’ve won in their current leagues anyway.
Anyone who follows college sports knows reform moves at a snails pace. Is there still time to save this mess before it’s too late?
I doubt it. Super conferences have been coming for a year and I don’t think there is anyway to stop the gravy train at this point. But that doesn’t mean someone with authority shouldn’t take a stand. It maybe hard but it could save your league, your school, your sport.
It might be too late, but maybe it’s not.
All we can do is hope the people at the top come to their senses. If they don’t, college athletics could be changed forever.
