Do The Conference Shuffle

Image via WikipediaIf you follow college athletics, reading the sports section or websites these days has become a bit like reading a supermarket tabloid or TMZ.  Who's breaking up, who's staying together, and who's getting hitched.

No, we're not talking about Brad and Angelina, or "Dancing With The Stars".  We're referring to the shuffling of the deck--rumored or confirmed--between big name universities and their athletic conferences, all in the pursuit of more money and prestige, at least as far as football is concerned.

The catalyst for all this is the apparent demise of the Big 12 and Big East conferences, for whatever the reason.  In the Big 12, Colorado and Nebraska have already left for other conferences, Texas A&M is leaving for the Southeast Conference (pending legal appeals), and four other schools--Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State--were all set to bolt to the Pac 12 until that conference decided not to take in any more teams.  As it currently stands, the Big 12 doesn't have enough schools to equal 12.

In the Big East, which began as a basketball-only league in 1979 before adding football, Syracuse (a charter member) and Pittsburgh have said they are leaving to join the Atlantic Coast Conference.  Which leaves the rest of the Big East in a bind because half of its members don't have football programs.

Even Notre Dame, which is a Big East member in nearly every sport but football, is thinking about jumping ship.  As long as it's not the Big Ten.  The Fighting Irish already has its own TV network, better known as NBC.

More rumor has it that the Big East and Big 12 are talking merger.  Others report that both conferences would stay put and try to add more schools.  Hard to keep up, isn't it?

All of this realignment is being driven by football, and the profits, prestige and exposure it brings to a university.  But what about the rest of the athletic program?  How will they be affected by the shuffling in terms of costs, student participation and fan support?

Let's talk about academics for a minute.  You know, grades and degrees, which is the reason you go to college in the first place.  There are no majors in football, and you can't earn a Masters in basketball.  If university presidents believe changing conferences will solve their problems while it is getting next to impossible for real students to pay off their tuition in their lifetimes, then they're sadly mistaken.

Come to think of it, maybe those university presidents aren't the ones running the show.  It's the athletic directors, coaches and boosters who are driving this rush to realign.

Everyone knows college sports is just a glorified feeder system for the NFL and NBA, at least for the major universities, conferences, TV networks and sponsors who support them.  It's a great deal for everyone except the piously named "student athlete", whose school gets punished by the NCAA for accepting so much as a dime.

Change is inevitable.  Summer turns into autumn.  People get older.  Nations topple dictators.  Colleges abandon longtime rivalries to start new ones.  It's the turning of the page, the flipping of the remote, and hitting F5 on your computer.  Nothing lasts forever.

And just so you know, Ron Artest (aka Metta World Peace) was the first celebrity voted off "Dancing With The Stars".