The Pac-12 is imploding spectacularly as Oregon, others leaving

There’s one thing cathartic about watching convention realignment. Dooms-dayers have been preaching that the top is close to for some time, and because the Pac-12 folds, the ACC and Massive 12 look on, praying to keep away from the same destiny. Deep down, they understand it’s over, and so they, too, shall be ravaged by the SEC and Massive Ten till there’s nothing left price saving. When the world ends, you possibly can both lose your shit and rail towards the inevitable, or sit down, pour a glass of your most interesting booze, and luxuriate in life’s final moments.

I’ve chosen the latter of these two choices, for I refuse to waste a second agonizing over irreversible, silly choices made by universities that, in the event that they have been companies, would’ve filed for chapter had a CEO run them on this method. Oregon and Washington are Massive Ten certain; Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah clambered onto the Massive 12’s life raft; and Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State are left scrambling.

Except these 4 universities can persuade a bunch of athletic administrators to hitch a league with no TV contract or any powerhouse packages, the Convention of Champions may very well be kaput after a 108-year run. Any person please do a welfare examine on Invoice Walton.

The American increased training system is so corrupt, so greasy, so devoid of ethics and oversight, that it’s wonderful levels assist you to acquire employment in any respect.

These faculties — those that elevate tuition yearly, exploit an unpaid workforce, mishandle scandal after scandal, and public sale off a century’s price of custom for a TV deal and the fitting to play Baylor — are your references? Let me take one other take a look at your work expertise as a result of I’ve met ASU alums earlier than, and the one factor that diploma ensures is your physique can maintain itself totally on vodka sodas.

The way forward for school sports activities will definitely appear like… one thing

For these enthusiastic about the potential for two tremendous conferences creating an NFC and AFC for faculty soccer, could I remind you the NFL has 32 groups. The Massive Ten already has extra members than both convention, and there are not any divisions both. If that’s nonetheless the case within the B1G, championship matchups shall be decided by the 2 finest successful percentages, and when that predictably fails, an arbitrary tiebreaker.

There are such a lot of questions. Can conferences renegotiate TV offers after they add extra faculties, and extra mouths to feed? How will journey be dealt with by groups and followers? What number of non-conference video games will soccer packages play? How will lower-level faculties be affected in the event that they now not get income from taking part in sacrificial lamb?

The Massive Ten hoops tourneys are going to function a area that’s virtually a 3rd of the dimensions of the Massive Dances’. The reply to accommodate all this growth can’t be extra video games; no less than not with out pushing the workload far past what’s protected, and what’s acceptable for an exercise that’s not your profession.

There’s a frightening quantity of logistics round seemingly each nook, and it’s very obvious that nobody thought any of this by means of. Faculties are too determined for monetary safety to be involved with something past the following payday. In the meantime, the Massive Ten and SEC are amassing arms prefer it’s 1962, and with as little regard for the long run as Chilly Struggle-era America and the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, there’s no use hiding underneath your desk, or attempting to James Bond your means out of this nuclear catastrophe. The bomb went off, and a post-apocalyptic dystopia of faculty sports activities is sort of right here, however earlier than you watch Oregon-Maryland, Arizona-Kansas State, or UCLA-Iowa, simply sit back and admire the beautiful mushroom cloud.