Consequences of Conference Realignment
Consequences of Conference Realignment (By Andrew Sonzini)
The history of college sports and the concept of conference realignment are inseparable. From the beginning, it has been driven by universities' needs for greater exposure, name recognition, and revenue. Yet, recent movements have taken this trend to another level. Within the last year and a half, four major universities have announced that they will be leaving their current conferences. Last summer, Texas and Oklahoma, the heavyweights of the BIG-12, announced that they will be joining the SEC (Southeastern Conference) by July 1, 2025. While many mourn this change, the schools’ geographic proximity to their new rivals makes the move more palatable. While old BIG-12 rivalries are threatened, new and exciting SEC rivalries are likely to emerge.
This summer, however, the entire calculus changed. USC (University of Southern California) and UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), traditional PAC-12 powerhouses, have announced that they will be joining the BIG Ten by the fall of 2024. This sudden and stunning announcement sent shockwaves throughout the world of college sports. Since then, the BIG Ten has been rumored to be negotiating with four other PAC-12 schools (Oregon, Washington, Stanford, and Cal-Berkeley). The BIG Ten has traditionally been made up of schools from the Midwest, and matchups between them and the West Coast schools have regularly occurred in the postseason only. With few exceptions, the world-famous Rose Bowl Game always features a matchup between the football champions of the two conferences on New Year’s Day. While losing this annual tradition is cause for concern, many heavier matters are at stake.
Universities’ need for revenue is one of the preeminent forces driving conference realignment. At the time of the last realignment push, annual revenue for Division One football alone was nearly seven billion dollars (Krogan and Greyser 6). In the years since, football and other sports have become increasingly profitable. During realignment cycles, conferences also seek to “offer a program higher TV revenues and increased national exposure” (Kogan and Greyser 5). In turn, national exposure and TV coverage can attract skilled recruits from all over the country. When they commit to a school and perform well, revenues increase. Because of this, TV deals driven by realignment become the lynchpin of a university’s search for revenue to be used both in and out of athletic departments.
As detailed by the chart above, football and basketball are the sports that raise the most revenue for major universities. Thus, TV deals are bound to focus on these more lucrative sports. Recently, the Big Ten announced that it had signed a seven-year television rights agreement with FOX, CBS, and NBC. According to a recent report in Fortune Magazine, this deal will “allow the conference’s soon-to-be 16 member universities to share more than $1 billion per year” (Russo and the Associated Press). This translates to an average of at least $62.5 million a year in revenue for each school. With this revenue, athletic departments would be able to improve facilities, fund scholarships, and attract recruits. Additionally, many universities could use this money to fund operational and other essential expenses. In the meantime, broadcasting corporations will continue to report record profits and viewing numbers.
While this process may seem mutually beneficial and largely benign, ongoing conference realignment could pose serious threats to the academic, mental, social, and overall well-being of student-athletes. A need to travel further distances for games will inevitably lead to more time away from campus. This will inevitably mean more “missed classes and missed work and additional pressures to make up work” (Comeaux 226). Then, as academic performance suffers, the likelihood of landing a job outside of football decreases. Additionally, the physical and environmental toll on the future of student athletes is almost unbelievable. Research has shown that “the spatial expansion of...conferences [has] caused average emissions to rise in almost every case” (Farley et al. 103). While the academic and environmental costs of realignment are more visible and easier to quantify, the consequences for the mental health and social integration of student-athletes cannot be understated. Spending more time on the road will separate them from the people and places they love. This, in turn, will make it more difficult for them to build important relationships and take time to recharge. Under this regime, mental health and social engagement are almost certain to decrease.
Though the benefits of conference realignment are many, we must not forget the real costs for student-athletes. As this inevitable process continues, colleges and conferences must find ways to ensure their physical, mental, and social well-being. In these discussions, we must also not forget the environmental cost of cross-country travel. Left unchecked, increased emissions threaten the future livelihoods of the student-athletes college sports are supposed to serve. Yet, by keeping their needs in mind, we can design a landscape where college sports produce revenue for both universities and the private sector while building a generation of well-rounded and grounded student-athletes.
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Works Cited
Access Restricted. www.kxan.com/sports/invitation-accepted-texas-and-oklahoma-officially-join-the-sec. Accessed 19 Oct. 2022.
cacable7. “Who’s Number 1 Best Rose Bowls.” YouTube, 6 Feb. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQXOqiQfB8M.
Comeaux, Eddie. Introduction to Intercollegiate Athletics. 1st ed., Johns Hopkins UP, 2015.
Farley, Bradley, et al. “Environmental Impact of Power Five Conference Realignment.” The Geographical Bulletin, vol. 58, no. 2, Nov. 2017, pp. 93–106.
Kogan, Vadim, and Stephen A. Greyser. “Conflicts of College Conference Realignment: Pursuing Revenue, Preserving Tradition, and Assessing the Future.” Harvard Business School, Feb. 2014, pp. 1–29. www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/14-073_ea70abf6-d99c-4529-96b2-e8bef262a4e6.pdf.
Mulay, Vignesh. “Virginia Athletics Generated Record Revenues of Nearly $110.3 Million but a Deficit of Almost $1.5 Million in 2019-20.” The Cavalier Daily - University of Virginia’s Student Newspaper, 11 Feb. 2021, www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2021/02/virginia-athletics-generated-record-revenues-of-nearly-110-3-million-but-a-deficit-of-almost-1-5-million-in-2019-20.
Russo, Ralph and The Associated Press. “Big Ten Signs Historic TV Deal for College Football and Basketball, Raking in $1 Billion a Year.” Fortune, 18 Aug. 2022, fortune.com/2022/08/18/big-ten-historic-tv-deal-college-football-basketball-1-billion-a-year.
“University of Southern California to University of Nebraska-Lincoln - Google Maps.” Google Maps, www.google.com/maps/dir/University+of+Southern+California,+Los+Angeles,+CA/University+of+Nebraska-Lincoln,+R+Street,+Lincoln,+NE/@37.3358514,-111.995067,6z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x80c2c7e49c71a5ed:0xaa905a5bb427a2c4!2m2!1d-118.285117!2d34.0223519!1m5!1m1!1s0x8796bea750a6cdbd:0x5d8d3c22f9423b8f!2m2!1d-96.7004763!2d40.8201966!3e4.
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