The Future of Collegiate Athletics

On3 imageby:Freddie Maggard07/01/22

Football is King. Sure, decisions made by Oklahoma, Texas, USC, and UCLA impact the entirety of their athletic and academic departments but make no mistake about it, those choices to jump ship for another conference are solely based on football revenue. Football is the economic train that drives the engine to remain or depart from the station. The Longhorns, Sooners, Trojans, and Bruins have punched their tickets and are chasing the almighty dollar and I don’t blame them a bit. 

The New B1G

The sunny environments that surround USC and UCLA make for beautiful backdrops. That’s going to change when the Trojans and Bruins fly several hours east for a November night game in Minnesota, New Jersey, or Wisconsin. The reverse effect could also play a factor. The mere time change between the LA-based programs and the east coast will be an interesting plot for the larger picture. Those poor equipment staffs. Bless their hearts. The giant trucks with team logos packing all the gear are looking at a 40+ hour drive from LA to Jersey when USC plays at Rutgers. That’s a lot of coffee consumption and stops at Buc-ee’s. 

Another aspect that is not being discussed is the stylistic differences between the B1G of today and the one that will kick off in 2024. The term fullback and all that it implies will be introduced to the western newcomers. Sure, they’ve faced a version of that against Stanford, but not a weekly dose. Bad weather at northeast football games can be a test of wills more so than an X and O chess match. The B1G is a physical league that features teams built from the inside out. The Pac-12 is a skill-based conference that focuses on speed and open-field maneuvers. It will be interesting to see how the Trojans and Bruins play football in the proverbial phone booth. But, it won’t matter. The only tally that will count is the direct deposits. 

The SEC 

Texas and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC has been amply covered. As I’ve written before, I’m still getting used to South Carolina and Arkansas. However, I see the Horns and Sooners having similar stylistic problems following their transition to the closest thing to the NFL outside the AFC West. Both teams like to push the football up and down the field and have faced very little resistance in terms of a week-in and week-out defensive force outside of Baylor. Today’s SEC is moving towards a passing league, but defense is still the ruling party. Take the 2021 Georgia Bulldogs for an example. Kirby Smart’s squad sported a walk-on quarterback that managed his offense to not screw up so the defense could dominate for four quarters and won a title. I’ve been told that offense sells tickets, defense wins championships. But, what do I know? Much like the conference landscape, that could be changing too. 

What Does All This Mean? 

College football is changing and it’s bringing with it an interesting mix of athletic programs from the east to west coast. Many have pondered the deciding factor when analyzing why these four teams drenched in their present conference alignments jumped ship. Let me make it easy for you. It’s all about the money. Perhaps all this is simply a power play between ESPN and Fox. Regardless, the collegiate athletics landscape is permanently shifting to mega-conferences in what could eventually become a mirror image of the AFC and NFC. A 12-team playoff may be forthcoming. We’ll see. That would be fun. Things will never be the same as they were four years ago and that’s ok. Times change, money changes, and programs adapt for both. 

So what will happen to the MAC and other non-Power 5 leagues? Not sure. With super-conferences constructing nationwide alliances, programs like Kentucky and Michigan may maintain lesser control of their ability to construct their own schedules. Maybe, just maybe, an organization will be formed to manage the chaos that is college football because the NCAA is just not it. The NCAA has zero say-so in naming a football national champion and the infinite amount of postseason bowl games that produce a vast amount of revenue. The NCAA is relevant in managing the other sports and running tournaments. They do a good job at that. Might I add that I greatly enjoy those products? So, instead of remaining under the NCAA umbrella, will football break away from the other sports to form its own association made up of what is now described as Power-5 programs? Who knows. Makes sense. There are so many questions and so few answers. 

The SEC and B1G are set to make a small, well maybe not so small, fortune which will be necessary to cover the travel budgets for every program within their departments that will be crisscrossing the country. Collegiate athletics have been rocked by three major new developments over the course of a two-year span: Conference expansion/re-alignment, Name-Image-Likeness, and the Transfer Portal. Absorbing one of the three would have been an enormous challenge. Adding all three simultaneously has brought on full-on chaos. Pardon me if I’m enjoying this way too much. The end result is that student-athletes across all sports are benefitting more today than ever. I like that. 

However, I remain somewhat torn on all this. I used to be a college football traditionalist but have altered my views as I’ve gotten older. I see change as a good thing IF and only IF it benefits the athletes. Today’s and tomorrow’s college football coaches are going to be under more strain. While they’re well compensated, patience in what’s going to be a much more competitive and altering market will be diminished. The Mark Stoopses of the world may not get a chance to build a program or be given five years to construct a consistent winner. It’s going to be a win-now or get-fired world. Maybe it already is. NIL and Portal will take over the recruiting landscape. Who am I kidding? They already have and the NCAA is standing on the sideline with their hands in their pockets. 

New rivalries will be established, which is fun. I look forward to seeing the Longhorn and Sooner logos running onto a packed Kroger Field on a cold November night. I can’t wait to hear USC’s fight song go head to head with the iconic Michigan band. Seeing UCLA’s powder blue jerseys at the Horse Shoe will be classic. Sports is fun, or so says Ryan Lemond. The new era of collegiate athletics is taking on a seismic shift that’s going to have an economic impact on the few leagues that are left standing when the music stops. 

Football Nation. 

Discuss This Article

Comments have moved.

Join the conversation and talk about this article and all things Kentucky Sports in the new KSR Message Board.

KSBoard

2024-03-28