This is how College Sports die
ZWF #21: Sunday, July 3, 2022
Last summer, the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma shocked the college sports landscape by announcing their move from the Big 12 conference to the Southeastern Conference. The question at the time was, what will the SEC’s rivals do to respond. We found out on Thursday, as the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California announced they will be joining the Big Ten conference.
Inside this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts, some analysis on the latest earth-shattering move in college athletics and the future of college sports could look like. Plus, a look at what Zander’s been reading this past week, and some of the top headlines in news and sports you’ll want to know about.
Also, go listen to the latest episode of the Zander’s Facts podcast! Episode 68 features a breakdown of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and what it means for abortion rights in America. Plus, a recap of everything that was revealed during last week’s surprise January 6 Committee hearing. Download and listen to the Zander’s Facts podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
Zander’s Weekend Facts is here to give you the facts about what has been going on in the world around us this past week. You’ll just have to read these facts, instead of listening to them on the Zander’s Facts podcast.
Here are Zander’s Weekend Facts for Sunday, July 3, 2022:
ZANDER’S ANALYSIS
UCLA and USC are heading to the Big Ten. Uh oh.
It was the news that Oklahoma and Texas were breaking away from the conference they helped found in 1994, the Big 12, to join the SEC that rocked the college sports world in July 2021. Now in July 2022, it is the news that UCLA and USC are joining the Big Ten that has once again provided the college sports-bare summer season with some major headlines.
Yes, you read that right. UCLA and USC, two historic west-coast collegiate powerhouses in academics and athletics, have announced they will leave the Pac-12 conference in the summer of 2024 to join the Big Ten conference. The Big Ten, whose current western boundary school is the University of Nebraska, is expanding all the way to Southern California.
At least Oklahoma and Texas make a little bit of sense. I wouldn’t really consider those two states to be in the Southeast, but at least it’s close, and Texas A&M is already in the SEC.
But UCLA and USC in the Big Ten? A conference that historically has barely crossed the Mississippi river? That doesn’t make sense. At least for geographic purposes, which you would think counts for something.
Alas, that is not the collegiate athletic world we live in. Time and time again, it has been proven that only one thing remains king in the world of college sports, money.
There is absolutely no other reason why UCLA and USC would join a conference where the closest current member is currently just a short 1,513 mile drive away, other than the yearn for more moola. The same applies to Oklahoma and Texas.
While they may be the ones gunning for the green now, they are definitely not the first. Realignment of collegiate athletic conferences has been ongoing for decades.
In the 1990s, South Carolina and Arkansas joined the SEC, Penn State joined the Big Ten, Florida State joined the ACC, and the Big East added several members in order to enhance one specific sport.
In the 2000s, the ACC raided the Big East to grab Boston College, Miami, and Virginia Tech. Then in the 2010s, the ACC added Louisville, Notre Dame (partially), Pittsburgh, and Syracuse, the Big Ten grabbed Maryland, Nebraska, and Rutgers, the Big 12 picked up TCU and West Virginia, the Pac-12 snapped up Colorado and Utah, and the SEC gained Missouri and Texas A&M.
And those are just some of the most recent examples. Conference realignment in collegiate athletics has been happening for the majority of these conferences’ existences.
But this feels different. Kind of like how the realignments of the 2010s felt a little different. Nebraska and Missouri left behind many historic rivalries to join their current conferences where they feel like cultural outcasts. West Virginia isn’t anywhere near any other Big 12 member. ACC charter school Maryland leaving for the Big Ten is still being debated among alumni.
But this is much worse than what occurred a decade ago. This is everything that we feared could happen. A blatant money grab and opportunity to separate the haves and have nots in college sports.
This latest realignment puts in stone the fact that the Big Ten and the SEC are running away from the rest of the crowd, and that there really isn’t anyone who can stop them.
The moves of Oklahoma and Texas hit you in the head with it, and the moves of UCLA and USC are basically blinding you with it. The fact that the only thing those at the top of college sports care about is money and not being left behind.
In the Big 12, Oklahoma and Texas would have been left behind the schools in the SEC. Same goes for UCLA and USC if they had stayed in the Pac-12. The reality is that schools in the Big Ten and SEC make more money in athletics than those in the ACC, Big 12, and Pac-12. This is due to the television rights deals that those conferences have signed. The SEC just signed a huge deal with ESPN to replace CBS as the home of the SEC “Game of the week,” and the Big Ten is about to sign massive deals with Fox and potentially CBS, ESPN, NBC, Amazon, and Apple, among many suitors vying for games.
Each conference negotaties their television rights deals separately, meaning each conference gets separate amounts of money from these deals. The conferences then distribute that money, sometimes equally sometimes not, to the schools in the conference. That matters a ton, because it’s a lot of money coming into those schools’ athletic departments. Many estimates believe the SEC will be able to give each of its schools north of $75 million per year in revenue, while the Big Ten could potentially push $100 million per year.
Right now, Texas and Oklahoma are making around $40 million per year in the Big 12. UCLA and USC are making about $35 million per year in the Pac-12. Both of those conferences have their media rights up for grabs in the next few years, but they won’t get anywhere close to what the Big Ten and SEC are getting.
You can hardly blame those schools. The goal has become to provide your athletic department and school with the most money possible, and they are making moves to do just that. If you were in the position of moving your school to a conference where you would receive tens of millions more in revenue per year, you would be stupid not the pull the trigger. In fact, you’d probably be really stupid because you’d probably be fired if you didn’t.
But that’s the problem. Why is that the only solution? It is causing a lot more problems than solutions in college sports right now. You’d be unwise to doubt the lessons of The Notorious B.I.G. “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”
It’s going to cause problems not just for the schools that are getting left behind, but also for the schools that are going to be a part of the two super conferences. When your conference stretches from the shores of New Jersey to Southern California, that’s going to rack up some major travel expenses. What is going to happen to the men’s soccer program or women’s volleyball team that has to travel cross-country on a Tuesday in the middle of the semester to play in a regular season game?
Yes, the schools are going to be receiving a lot more money, but that is almost assuredly going to be put where it came from in the first place, football. When the massive expenses rack up, university leaders are going to be looking at ways to cut costs. That is always going to lead to cutting sports, like many schools such as Stanford tried to do during the pandemic to massive backlash. Title IX may get in the way of that, but anything is possible under the current makeup of the Supreme Court.
Then, you’ve got the schools that won’t get to join the Big Ten and SEC, even though reports say those two conferences aren’t done expanding. In the highest tier of college football, FBS, there are 131 schools. Say the Big Ten and SEC expand to 20, or 30, even 40, schools each. You’re still leaving a lot of schools out in the cold. Remember also, that FBS was formed when Division I was split into two tiers, Division I-A and Division I-AA (now FCS) in 1978.
The Big Ten and SEC, with the power of the pocketbook, can basically split off from the rest of FBS and do what they want. Who’s gonna stop them?
The NCAA?
Please, don’t give such a nonsensical answer next time. The NCAA has ultimately been a massive failure that has only held college sports back in numerous instances. It is because of the NCAA’s lack of authority and common sense that college sports are blowing up at the moment.
The only reasonable solution to saving college athletics would be instituting an actual governing body that could actually keep the money-brokers in check. That could actually use its power for the good of the student-athletes, instead of ruining their careers over a paid autograph or lunch with a recruiter. A governing body that could split teams up into separate tiers, like Division I, II, III, and then divisions, or even conferences inside those tiers, based solely on geography, and where all schools of equal tier could get the same payout and level the playing field.
Then, if schools prove they are worth moving up a tier, they can be promoted, or they can be relegated, like in European soccer. We basically already have these things, we have three divisions of collegiate athletics and schools move up or down already. James Madison University is moving up from FCS to the Sun Belt conference in the FBS this year. But that is entirely up to the individual conferences and whether they will extend membership to new schools. A governing body that actually functions properly to oversee this would do wonders.
A governing body that would actually focus on what makes college sports, college sports. The tradition, the pagentry, giving talented student-athletes the opportunity to make a name for themselves and earn money based on their name, image, and likeness, and allowing for anyone from any background the opportunity to compete in any sport and have it matter. Not money.
We have to remember that college sports are a foreign entity to much of the world. No other country makes as big a deal over collegiate athletics as the United States of America does. To the rest of the world, this probably sounds absolutely nuts. And maybe we should just break off the football teams and make an NFL development league, because that’s basically what is going on right now.
But we still have a chance to save college sports. We still have a chance to root for the schools that we attended for four years, and our friends and family have attended. We still have a chance for every student-athlete in any sport, be it basketball, rowing, lacrosse, etc. to matter.
However, the way college sports are currently heading looks like a disaster. And it’s all thanks to the biggest money-maker that sports in this country has seen. Our gross, totally unhealthy obsession with one of the most dangerous sports imaginable is driving our morals for college sports, and athletics in general, down a cliff.
I’m probably not the first, but I’d like to welcome you to the era of super conferences. The Big Ten and the SEC are the future of college sports. Say goodbye to the power five, and welcome the power two. Your school may get invited, if they’re good at football. Basketball? Not enough money attached, we need that football money.
No one really knows what the future holds for college athletics, but the future looks incredible bleak. There is a chance that we can actually get back to the basics of college sports, and think about what’s best for the students who are out there representing their university, but that would require we stop looking at the piles of money laying in front of us. So, it’s doubtful at best we’ll stop churning toward the dark future that awaits college sports. This may be the end of it actually mattering, but hey, at least some of us got rich along the way. Enjoy the Big Ten, USC and UCLA.
What Zander’s been reading this week
On Zander’s reading list this week was an article going deep into the divisions America faces right now. In The Atlantic, Ronald Brownstein takes a look at how ‘blue’ and ‘red’ America have become distinct from one another over the past few decades and how they may be on an uncontrollable path towards detachment. It’s an excellent reminder of the fact that we have no idea what the future of the United States could hold, and how much different it could look.
Read this week’s featured article in The Atlantic - America Is Growing Apart, Possibly for Good
Rapid-fire Facts
As the Supreme Court remains in the news, here are the week’s top news headlines in rapid-fire fashion:
The Supreme Court is set to take up a case regarding how elections are run in individual states. On Thursday, the Court announced it will hear a challenge from North Carolina Republicans against the state courts that threw out a congressional district map that was drawn by Republicans in the state House. The nine justices on the high court will be asked whether a state court system has the power to order changes to federal elections or interfere in the drawing of legislative district boundaries. Many experts also believe the court could give state legislatures the sole authority of creating laws regarding federal elections, bypassing the governor and state courts. The case is expected to heard in the court’s fall term. (Episode 69 of the Zander’s Facts podcast will have more information on this case.)
The New Zealand government has designated the far-right U.S. extremist group Proud Boys as a terrorist organization. The Proud Boys played a significant role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and many of its members have been charged by U.S. authorities for their roles in the insurrection. New Zealand also accused the Proud Boys of practicing crypto-facism, a practice used to hide the true beliefs of an individual or group to appeal to a wider audience. New Zealand joins Canada as the only countries that have classified the Proud Boys as terrorists, a move that the U.S. has not taken itself.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that will work to significantly reduce non-recyclable plastics in the state. The bill, which was passed with bipartisan support in the state legislature, would require at least 30% of plastic items be recyclable that are sold, distributed, or imported into California by 2028. That number will rise to 65% in 2032, when single-use plastics must also be reduced by 25%. The bill also calls for a ban of expanded polystyrene, if it’s use is not reduced by 25% by 2025. The law is seen as the most aggressive step yet by any state to reduce the amount of waste used.
The Supreme Court handed down a decision on Thursday that limits the Environmental Proton Agency’s (EPA) regulation power. The court ruled that the EPA did not have the authority to limit the amount of carbon dioxide being released because Congress had not given them that authority. The six conservative justices on the court formed the majority, while the three liberal justices dissented. The decision, without a swift response from Congress, is expected to be a major roadblock in President Biden’s goal of the U.S. electric gric running on 100 percent clean energy by 2035.
A new law in Minnesota will allow people 21 years old and over to purchase food and drink items that contain small amounts of hemp-dervied THC. The bill passed through the state legislature with Democratic and Republican support. However, at least one of those Republicans, state Sen. Jim Abeler, has now said he did not know the full contents of the bill when he voted for it. Abeler and other Republicans now want to roll-back the law, but that is not expected to happen under current Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.
Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the next Supreme Court Justice on Thursday. Jackson is replacing the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, who stepped down at the end of the court’s previous term on Thursday at noon. Jackson becomes the first black woman to sit on the nation’s highest court. Despite Jackson joining the court, the ideological makeup of the court is not expected to change. With Jackson replacing Breyer, a liberal justice, the court will stay at six conservative justices and three liberal justices.
Zander’s Facts Sporting Club
With the NBA offseason making major headlines, here are this week’s facts from the Sporting Club:
Basketball star Kevin Durant requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, the first official day of the NBA’s free agency period. Durant is looking to leave the Nets after just three years on the team. In that time, the Nets have not advanced out of the second round of the postseason, and controversies surrounding teammate Kyrie Irving have put a damper on any hopes for a championship run. Durant reportedly has a wish list of teams that includes the Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat, but it’s almost assured that many teams would be interested in acquiring one of the best talents in the world.
The NBA free agency period began this week, with players now allowed to sign new deals with teams across the league. However, many of the notable deals so far have involved players re-signing with their current teams. Among those who re-signed include two-time reigning league MVP Nikola Jokic signing the largest deal in NBA history to remain with the Denver Nuggets, and Bradley Beal and Zach LaVine singing max deals to return to the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls, respectively. Several trades have been conducted, including the Utah Jazz sending Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Free agency is also expected to remain in the headlines over the next few days, with star players’ futures such as Kevin Durant and James Harden still up in the air.
Formula 1 has renewed its U.S. media deal with ESPN through 2025. The extension of the deal means that all Formula 1 races will continue to be seen on ESPN platforms, as has been the case since 2018. The rights were heavily contested by other U.S. media companies as Formula 1’s popularity continues to surge stateside. Among the other bidders for the rights were Amazon, NBC, and Netflix, which airs the Formula 1 reality series “Drive to Survive.” ESPN will pay a reported $75-$90 million per year for the rights under the new deal, up from about $5 million per year. The Formula 1 season continues this morning with the British Grand Prix, which will start just before 10:00 am et on ESPN2.
The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup Final last Sunday night, defeating the previous two-time defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. The clinching of the cup marks the first time since 2001 that the Avalanche have finished the season at the top of the NHL. Cale Makar of the Avalanche was named the most valuable player of the postseason after he scored eight goals and contributed to 29 points in the postseason. The Avalanche will attempt to repeat when hockey returns, with the 2022-23 NHL season beginning this October.
The United States Men’s National Team has qualified to play soccer in the Olympics for the first time since 2008. The U.S. men will play in the next Summer Olympics when they are held in Paris in 2024. The drought between appearances marks the longest period that the U.S. men haven’t played soccer in the Olympics since missing the 1960-1968 games. The Olympics are a U-23 tournament in soccer, meaning players must be younger than 23 years old to play, although there are allowed to be up to three exceptions. Along with host France, the Dominican Republic is the only other country besides the U.S. to have qualified so far. The Dominican Republic, which will be participating in its first-ever World Cup at any age level in next year’s U-20 World Cup, and the U.S. qualified by advancing out of the semifinals of the CONCACAF U-20 Championship. The final of that tournament will be played tonight in Honduras, with the match kicking off at 8:00 pm et on FS1 and TUDN.
Wrapping up the Facts
Before this edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts wraps up, here’s another reminder to check out the latest episodes of the Zander’s Facts podcast. Download and listen to Episode 68, along with every episode of Zander’s Facts, wherever you get your podcasts. Check out Zander’s Facts’ Linktree page for more on anything Zander’s Facts related: Zander's Facts on Linktree
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That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of Zander’s Weekend Facts. The Facts in print return next Sunday, July 10, 2022.