Here we go again…

Before I went to sleep last night, I was skimming my Twitter timeline when my eyes landed on a tweet from SportsCenter “REPORT: ACC officials to vote on expansion candidates Wed. Louisville is most likely school to receive invite (via ACCSports.com).” My heart leaped for joy!! Not really. I rolled my eyes and said here we go again…

I am not sure if there is a word to express how annoying this realignment, musical chairs stuff is. For real. Almost every day there is talk of one school leaving this conference to go to another conference or this school does not want to pay this amount of money to leave their current conference. Talk about a mess!! Want to know what annoys me the most? The fact that this is all about MONEY. Surprising? Not at all. The decision makers could care less about tradition, alumni, the fans, etc. They are all playing switcheroo so they can see how much money they can make. Yes, athletic departments need money. Yes, institutions need money. Yes, the more money you have the more you can do for your school. However, society has become so money hungry that it is willing to sacrifice, at times, its integrity all because of a dollar or two.

Still not convinced this thing is money driven? In the college sports world, there are six major conferences: The Atlantic Coast Conference(ACC), the Big East Conference, the the Big 10 Conference, the Big 12 Conference, the Southeastern Conference(SEC) and the Pacific-12 Conference(Pac-12). Within the last two years, five out of the six conferences have either added or lost members due to the conference shuffle.

Lets take a look at the Big East, which I think will be extinct in a few years. As of today, the Big East consists of the University of Connecticut, Georgetown, St. John’s, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Rutgers, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple, the University of Cincinnati, DePaul, the University of Lousville, Marquette, the University of  South Florida and Notre Dame(in every sport except football). Louisville, Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame have all jumped ship and are headed to the ACC. Rutgers is sailing to the Big 10. To compensate for the impending losses, the brilliant minds in the Big East have decided to add Boise State(yes, the school in Idaho), San Diego State, Southern Methodist(straight out of Texas)Houston, the University of Central Florida, the University of Memphis, Tulane, East Carolina(in football only) and Navy. Whew! Makes your head hurt right? I am just waiting to see a tweet announcing that the Big East is now the Big USA conference or the Coast to Coast with a stop in the midwest conference. That conference makes no sense whatsoever.

Want another example? The Big 12 which consists of Baylor, Iowa State, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, the University of Texas, Texas Christian University, Texas tech University and West Virginia University. That is 10 schools for those of you keeping count. In 2011, the  University of Colorado and the University of Nebraska, bolted for the Pac-12 and Big 10, respectively. In 2012, the University of Missouri and Texas A&M left for the SEC. I fully expect the Big 12 to go after two more schools since they can not call themselves the Big 10, now can they?

This round robin, in my opinion, is putting a damper on college sports. Schools such as Texas A&M and the University of  Texas will no longer get to compete against each other year after year due to Texas A&M leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC. The ACC which had not lost a charter member since 1971, recently lost another when the University of Maryland decided to leave for the Big 10. High school athletes sometimes make decisions about where to go to school based on the conference they would play in. Etc. Etc. Etc. I could go on and on about why I wish a moratorium would be put in place when it comes to the switcheroo but I do not have the energy to do it. Plus I know my argument would just fall on death ears. So I will just sit back in The Korner, watching the money talk and secretly thanking them for giving me something to blog about, repeatedly. Insert sarcasm.

 

Until next time…TOODELLS.