NCAA Conference Realignments
Friday August 4th 2023, was the end of the largest conference realignment in NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) history. Ten teams from the Pac-12 Conference have decided to leave, with four of them going to the Big-10, another four to the Big-12, and two to the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference). The ten universities will join their respective conferences in 2024. Most of the universities decided to leave when the Pac-12 presented an Apple-TV deal that gave the universities significantly less money than universities in other conferences.
What universities are moving and where?
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington will join the Big-10. Colorado, Arizona State, Arizona, and Utah will join the Big-12. Cal and Stanford will join the ACC. Only Oregon State and Washington State are left in the Pac-12, however they will probably have to join the Mountain West (a smaller conference in the same geographic area,) as a conference of only two teams wouldn’t be able to survive.
Why are universities moving?
As previously mentioned, the main reason universities are leaving the Pac-12 is for TV money. The Pac-12 simply didn’t receive any offers from major TV studios like ESPN or Fox and had to settle for a much smaller deal with Apple-TV. Part of the reason the Pac-12 struggled to find TV deals is because some of the late-night games get little to no audience in the eastern part of the United States. Another reason is that college football just isn’t as popular on the west coast as it is in the South or the Midwest.
What impact will this have on college athletics?
While one of the most obvious effects of the realignment is the distance between universities in the same conference (Washington will be in the same conference as Penn State,) this is unlikely to affect college football teams too much. All high-level college football programs have private jets and other accommodations that make long distance travel fairly easy. However, the conference realignment could have a much greater impact on less popular sports like track, swimming, and golf. The only college sports commonly shown on TV are football and basketball, meaning that most universities invest much less in their other sports, even if those other sports are more competitive and successful.
By Josh Becker
