“Previously the answer was that it was on the back burner. My answer now is: it was placed in the kitchen cupboard. It’s not even on the stove.
— SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey on conference expansion, SEC Media Days 2019
“Exclusive: Texas, Oklahoma contact SEC about joining conference.”
— Brent Zwerneman, Houston Chronicle reporter, 2021 SEC Media Days
Silly Greg. Everyone knows that there is no such thing as hibernating in conference realignment. It’s the one universal topic that hangs over college football like the Goodyear Blimp on a fall Saturday. Only this airship never returns to its base. It remains within view 365 days a year, year after year, teasing and tantalizing fans of every team in the sport. But looking at it too long can cause headaches, especially if you’re a sports director.
In my experience, fans’ fascination with realignment far exceeds any other lingering topic in college football. If we’re honest, sometimes more so than the games themselves. It’s our NBA free agency, MLB the trade deadline and the NFL Draft all rolled into one. NBA podcast hosts can spend hours talking about hypothetical signings and trades or salary cap drops. We don’t have that, so instead we imagine 32-team superconferences with billion-dollar revenue distributions.
Fans’ insatiable appetite for every little bit of realignment chatter was the inspiration for Athleticism‘s Realignment Revisited in 2019. At the time, there hadn’t been a notable shakeup in five years, and there was no sign of anything major on the horizon, so we filled the void with behind-the-scenes retrospectives on Larry Scott’s audacious film. attempt in 2010 to create a Pac-16Texas A&M’s stealth passage to the SEC the following year and a clash between U.S. senators when West Virginia beat fellow Louisville for a invite to the Big 12.
My main contribution was a piece presenting five possible scenarios for the next wave of realignment (which included the aforementioned Sankey quote near the top). Some guesses proved prophetic — I suggested the Big 12 could add schools like UCF And BYUand that Arizona, Arizona State And Colorado might be tempted to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12. I still believe in my most radical suggestion, a college football premier leaguewill happen at some point in the future.
In the meantime, no, I didn’t predict Oklahoma And Texas to the SEC or U.S.C. And UCLA in the Big Ten. But looking back, maybe I should have. TV consultant Chris Bevilacqua predicted the next trend would be “consolidation,” and Jeff Nelson, president of sports marketing company Navigate, predicted: “Conferences won’t be as geographically limited in a media landscape that continues to relax with mobile and streaming. consumption is exploding. »
To date, this is the most read story I have written for Athleticismand Realignment Revisited remains our most popular college football-specific series.
So you better believe we’re going back.
Obviously, there was only some small developments on the realignment front over the past four years, and we’ll further explore the implications of the SEC and Big Ten’s impending moves as well as the present and future of the conference landscape. But we’ll also dig deeper into the historical record, because realignment, with all the moves and maneuvers that accompany it, is almost as old as the sport itself.
And man, do we have some stories.
Did you know that 60 years before the Pac-12’s current struggle for survival, the conference’s precursor, the Pacific Coast Conference, actually imploded? This isn’t the first time UCLA has left Oregon State and Washington State to fend for themselves.
Most history buffs know this Georgia Tech was formerly in the SEC. But how many know about the Atlanta school at any given time? earned consideration from the Big Ten?
GO FURTHER
Georgia Tech’s Realignment Roller Coaster, From Exiting the SEC to Big Ten Negotiations
And few people have been as associated with the realignment as former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delanywho delved into many subjects, from Flirtations at Notre-Dame to the Big Ten additions of State of Pennsylvania and more.
The list is lengthened increasingly.
Almost all of them have something in common with today’s realignment stories: palace intrigue. Angry letters. Secret meetings. Layoffs and resignations. All the reasons why we can’t get enough of this topic.
But lately, amid the last 12 months of endless Big 12/Pac-12 speculation, I’ve come to a new realization: At its core, realignment is just another scorecard.
For example, do Big 12 fans really care whether Arizona State or Colorado joins their conference? This is not the case for Texas and Oklahoma. Or is it more that these fans simply want to be able to claim victory over someonein this case the Pac-12, after more than a decade of losing schools to others?
The Big Ten may never win national championships at the same rate as the SEC, but their fans can be proud to have a richer TV deal.
GO FURTHER
UCF’s meteoric realignment and what could come next
For years, Utah dominated its Power 5 membership over rival BYU as a 10-year winning streak on the court. Today, Cougars fans are basking in the joy of being called into a conference that threatens to end the existence of the Utah league.
Texas A&M received an invitation to the sport’s premier conference before Texas invoked such vitriol that the schools refused to play each other for 13 years. Texas landing its own SEC invitation a decade later caused such indignity that A&M tried to derail it.
And then there is the Group of 5 schools, for whom the realignment wheels can serve as the ultimate form of validation. Here’s a golden ticket for you, TCUand you, Cincinnati, and now, perhaps, you, San Diego State and EMS. It’s graduation day. All your hard work has paid off.
Or, it may be a cruel reminder of your lot in life. When the Big 12 in 2021 pulled three schools from the AAC, it triggered a cascade of lower-level FBS shakeups in which the American Conference lost half its members overnight. And there was an element of chance in all this. Middle Tennessee, a regular bowl participant for 17 years, became the poor guy still sitting in the green room at the end of draft night as Charlottea program that is not yet ten years old, was able to go on stage and shake Roger Goodell’s hand.
Which brings us to the most pronounced theme of realignment: its cold, harsh cruelty.
GO FURTHER
Can Notre Dame still afford independence? Don’t Bet Against NBC Marriage
It’s former WAC Commissioner Karl Benson who gets the call as he moves his daughter into his college dorm that Fresno State and Nevada were leaving for the Mountain West. It was Sankey and Bob Bowlsby of the Big 12 working together to create a 12-team College Football Playoff, with Sankey knowing he was about to eliminate Texas and Oklahoma. It’s George Kliavkoff and Kevin Warren joining a handshake alliance only for Warren to poach two Pac-12 schools 10 months later.
Atrocious moments for these personalities on the front line of sport.
Endless fascination and entertainment for the rest of us.
Editor’s note: This story marks the start of The Athletic’s Realignment Revisited series, which explores the past, present and future of conference realignment in college sports. Follow the series and see more conference realignment stories here.
(Top illustration: Eamonn Dalton / Athleticism; (photos: Harry How, Josh Hedges and Jason Allen / Getty Images)
