Hand-wringers are lamenting the “opportunity” that University of Hawai’i athletics may have had to join the once-vaunted Pac-12. “Once-vaunted”, as the new-look Pac-12 looks more like a Mountain West Lite. 83% of the Pac-12 went away this year, including well-known, successful, and historically popular schools. Only Oregon State and Washington State remain, unwanted by the power four conferences, yet rich with the defectors’ forfeited, accrued funds. College sports is about money, relevancy, money, positioning, and money. New alignments ignore regionality, educational equivalencies, common sense, and historical rivalries.
Soooo… student-athletes will take a five-hour, cross-country flight (say from USC to Rutgers) for a 23-minute cross-country track meet. The transfer portal runs like a hectic transporter room from “Star Trek” as athletes leave on a whim; can that be sustained? Name/image/license (NIL) deals for players further separate the have- and have-not schools. Will a 19-year-old QB, receiving $1-million in NIL, experience resentment from his 18-year-old, little-known, un(der)paid offensive left tackle teammate? With prop bets now promoted in over 50% of states allowing college football betting, what could go wrong when 17-22 year-old athletes are propositioned/approached by big betting bozos?
Will money-draining, so-called “minor” sports be eliminated? By 2030, will we be left with just college football, men’s and women’s basketball and a maybe few other sports to simply ensure gender equity mandates are sustained? The latest realignment forced by major conferences (er… money) is surely temporary; the pieces will shift yet again in coming years. Will TV/cable/streaming funds paid to conferences and schools be sustainable as weary subscribers grow numb and uncertain ad revenues wobble?
The Pac-12 lost its cache when it lost the large west coast TV markets it represented; that’s what TV/streaming money providers want- eyeballs. Recent Pac-12 additions from the Mountain West simply don’t have the clout or national cache of the Pac-12’s departed schools. Can newcomers rise and shine? Because right now, almost no one east of the Rockies is noticing.
College football is the NFL’s minor league, with built-in (alumni) fans. It’s pay for play. Second- and third-stringers may leave or pass on top 20-ranked colleges for bigger bucks elsewhere; will that level the playing field when injuries occur and the cupboard’s bare? The genie’s out of the bottle; the NCAA (No Clue At All) is a weak vestige of its former self, stripped of power. And yes, UH must really fight mightily to simply survive.
Think about it…