I was going to write a post about the Mountain West and Conference USA merger, but then I just got a bit depressed about all the movement in college sports, the Big East in particular. After my initial bellyaching about Nebraska joining the Big Ten, it now looks like the model of restraint to just add Nebraska and basically leave an open invitation to Notre Dame. If you follow the history of college sports, football in particular, you'll see that conference alignments have always been fairly fluid, and conferences have generally crept towards larger and larger numbers, in much the same way the federal government kept soaking up more and more power through the history of the United States. But these latest moves are the most drastic. Where college conferences were once intensely regional, the Big East now literally stretches coast to coast, at least in football. This seems like a pretty major sea change that could threaten how college sports are played. On some level that's good, as college football needs a new system for the post-season. But, that doesn't require "national" conferences. I don't know exactly how this will change the landscape, but I have a feeling I will be putting my head in the sand and watch little outside of the Big Ten. And I might not be the only one. I'm hoping this will be a widespread reaction, and maybe the NCAA will step in and rebuild conferences that make sense on a regional and competitive level. I don't know. I've lost a little bit of faith in college sports. It makes it hard to concentrate on other subjects. I think I'll just go make myself some lunch, make some dinner reservations, and finish out some games. Comments are closed.
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