Good Realignment, Bad Realignment

I’m going to level with you, dear reader: I have been putting off a newsletter update for too long, in part because I felt obligated to get into conference realignment. And, quite frankly, the subject sucks.

Consider this a twofold level of suck. First off, it’s a boring topic. A deluge of Takes flooded the ecosystem in the hours and first few days following the six-hour whirlwind that was UCLA and USC’s declared move to the Big Ten.

Offering anything original felt futile when it seemed damn-near anyone with a pulse, a WiFi connection and even a passing interest in college football fired off their predictions and opinions. Beyond my Awful Announcing essay on Byron “Whizzer” White and the Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, I had no idea what I could offer that someone else hadn’t already (and more immediately) already covered.

But having covered the Pac-12 in different capacities for longer than I care to admit, the nagging anxiety that I had to write something stuck with me. Initially, I wanted to wait to see what more developed without diving into baseless speculation — or writing from a place of irrational emotion.

An overly emotional reaction would have been to note that for all the talk of the USC brand, the Trojans have won exactly one Pac-12 championship since George W. Bush left the White House. Or, noting that every team in the Pac-12 South has played in the conference championship game more recently than UCLA.

An emotionally charged take might cite these facts as contributing factors behind the Pac-12 taking a substantial hit in public perception and overall performance for the last decade, and the two programs now leaving feels a bit like if the captains of the Titanic were the first to board the lifeboats.

However, that’s not productive. It’s lashing out in response to the sadness those of us who have followed the league for decades feel in seeing it irrevocably change.

That leads into the second element of conference realignment that sucks: the actual process itself, and the end-goal I fear those wielding power in college football (e.g., television executives) are pursuing.

Now, I just stated I didn’t want to get into baseless speculation. At the same time, one need not wear a tinfoil hat to believe there’s a concerted effort to mold college football into a lesser version of the NFL, with the Big Ten and SEC as its NFC and AFC. The College Football Playoff functions as this Semi-Pro Super Bowl.

It’s a shortsighted plan at best, one that suggests a major disconnect between what it is college football fans actually love about the sport and what those signing the paychecks perhaps want to present us.

My visit to Kidd-Brewer Stadium last October for Appalachian State-Coastal Carolina reinforced for me everything I believe makes college football special — and all that the Playoff-obsessed TV types don’t grasp.

A game between two teams with zero shot of advancing to football’s final four buzzed with an energy few games in considerably larger venues have matched. Pursuit of a conference championship mattered, as well as regional bragging rights.

Meanwhile, an ironic twist is that Appalachian State and Coastal Carolina don’t have some extensive history. App State joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2014, Coastal Carolina in 2016. The two weren’t Southern Conference rivals like ASU and Georgia Southern before matriculating to FBS.

Hell, Coastal Carolina didn’t launch its program until 2003.

But the regionality, coupled with some trash talk and both programs fielding some damn good teams in recent years, fostered an organic excitement for that game that TV money can’t simply manufacture.

Conference realignment itself isn’t a negative, as the Sun Belt has demonstrated. Its continued expansion this season adds to the league’s overall strength, and does so without dispensing of the authenticity that comes only with regional makeup.

As far as other games I’ve attended in recent years, the few with energy matching that of Appalachian State-Coastal last season include most of the Rose Bowls I’ve covered and last December’s Pac-12 Championship Game.

The Rose Bowl likely finds itself on the chopping block due to the bad form of realignment, throwing out history that dates back to 1902. On the flipside, the 2021 Pac-12 Championship reflected what can come of Good Realignment and the stake some still hold in college football’s traditions.

Utah was well removed from the Playoff race, a much different scenario than the 2019 title game at Levi’s Stadium. One might assume the ‘19 contest would have generated more enthusiasm since a win would send the Utes into the final four; instead, the cavernous Silicon Valley venue teemed with palpable anxiety.

Last December’s Pac-12 Championship was an entirely different energy. Credit the move to Vegas in part, as thousands filled Allegiant Stadium — another point in favor of regionality. I can’t imagine USC fans flocking to Indianapolis for a Big Ten Championship when they were hardly bothered to take the one-hour flight to San Jose in 2015 and 2017, but I digress.

But also credit what the history of the Rose Bowl meant to Utah, as well as the milestone of winning a conference championship.

College football isn’t on its deathbed as a result of Bad Realignment. But it is eroding what makes the sport unique, and that’s depressing.