Assessing college sports’ changing landscape
Bill Hughes head shot
Bill Hughes (left) stands with Ronnie and Rob Kuchar of Perryopolis at the Rose Bowl in January.
Bill Hughes stands on the field at Auburn University prior to the Tigers' game against Penn State last season.
With a whirlwind encompassing college sports the last month, it is a safe bet that many fans are thankful that the football season is finally upon us.
Between schools moving to new conferences, Name, Image, & Likeness (NIL) deals, and other drama going on in the college sports world, at least the games are finally heading back to stadiums.
The college sports world as it has been known for decades, and in the case of the Pac-12, for a century, has changed forever, and depending on which perspective one has, it may not be for the better.
Yes, the focus of the collegiate sporting world returns to the gridiron this weekend, but there have been far too many distractions since Georgia blew out TCU in January to win its second consecutive College Football Playoff (CFP) national championship.
With the CFP expanding to 12 teams starting next year, the layout still has to be decided. It appears the top four teams will have a bye into the quarterfinals, while the fifth through 12-seeds will play games on the higher-ranked teams’ field.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in a rotation of the six bowl games currently known as the New Year’s 6 (NY6): The Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach Bowls, with the national championship game rotating between different venues.
While the format isn’t completely set in stone yet, the preference here would be for the top four teams to host quarterfinal games with the NY6 games rotating the semifinal games every three years like it happens now.
This would give them four more bowl games that mean something outside of the CFP.
Something that isn’t being given much thought is how the 12-team CFB playoff could drastically hurt the other bowl games.
Yes, many feel there are too many bowl games now as it is, but giving more meaning to the 11 playoff games may take away even more from the other bowl games.
This was something that wasn’t lost on me at the Rose Bowl in January.
I happened to be sitting in the same row as Rob and Ronnie Kuchar from Perryopolis. It is a running gag with Rob and me as we always seem to sit in the same row, or right in front of each other, at NY6 games.
They sat in front of me at the 2019 Cotton Bowl and behind me at the 2017 Fiesta Bowl.
We spoke in January about how special the Rose Bowl is.
“The Rose Bowl tradition is now gone,” he said. “I am glad I got to attend this (past) one.”
Kuchar also discussed how the CFP will minimize the importance of other bowl games.
“If your team is not in the playoff, there will be little reason to go to a third-rate bowl game,” he said. “I assume the great venues will be part of the playoff and your team will be playing for a spot in the lower end of the Top 25.”
While at the Rose Bowl, I met Chandler Judd, and despite Penn State defeating his beloved Utah Utes, he was thrilled to be at the game.
“Despite the loss, attending the Rose Bowl game and its festivities was fun and exciting,” he said. “My family and I have traveled from Salt Lake City for the last two Rose Bowls, and each time was a great experience.
“Playing against a historic program such as Penn State makes the game that much more entertaining.”
With the NY6 games being part of the playoff, that means this past Rose Bowl was the last of the traditional Big Ten versus Pac 12 matchup, and it has some pundits upset.
If we are going to talk about some experts and traditionalists being mad, look no farther that how the Pac 12 is dissolving in front of our eyes as USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington are headed to the Big 10 next year while Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado are off to the Big 12, and this doesn’t include the potential of Stanford and Cal heading to the ACC.
The movement is these universities into other athletic conferences is mind-numbing, especially when you look at the non-revenue sports.
How are student-athletes supposed to put the needed effort into their classes when they are constantly traveling to different parts of the country? Is the UCLA softball team, for example, supposed to fly to Rutgers one weekend for games and then to Ohio State the next? It will be the same if the ACC accepts Stanford and Cal.
Mental health issues have grown exponentially in college sports since the COVID pandemic, but they are going to get even worse for the teams that are traveling across the country multiple times in a season.
Some experts have stated that the realignments should only pertain to football, since all of these new TV deals have been driven to make the conferences, and their respective schools, as much money as possible.
This would mean the non-revenue sports would stay regional, and this would minimize travel for the teams and allow for traditional rivalries to take place.
Speaking of rivalries, with all of the realignment, several long-time rivalries could be out the window. Oregon and Oregon State, Washington and Washington State, and Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are three that may end.
No, they may not mean a lot to people in other parts of the country, but those are huge rivalries for those fan bases.
With the Power 5 (P5) conferences becoming the Power 4 (P4), and with the P4 having so many teams, will the conferences all move to a nine, or even a 10, game conference schedule?
This would leave fewer games against the mid-major schools or for an occasional game between two P4 schools.
Last September, I traveled with a couple of buddies, Laurel Highlands teacher/school counselor Curt Chapman as well as Michael Smith from Dallas, Texas to watch Penn State at Auburn.
It was an absolutely amazing environment to experience, especially at field level for part of the day. But will games like this disappear now with the bigger conferences, and with teams trying to make sure they get wins? These games feel special because they rarely happen.
Will conferences make sure the top teams have an easier schedule each season so more of its teams can make the 12-team playoff?
For example, does anyone really think the Big Ten would have Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, USC, Washington and Oregon all play each other in a season?
Not a chance. Those teams may play two of the others, maybe three occasionally, and then several of the lesser teams.
The bigger conferences will have a greater divide of the haves and the have nots.
Whether or not the ACC adds Stanford, Cal and SMU, Pitt has made its way into the conference haves. Sure, Clemson and Florida State are the bigger name programs, but Pitt has established itself and is in a good position moving forward.
West Virginia is expected to struggle in the Big 12 this year, and some feel Neal Brown’s days are numbered as the head football coach there. It doesn’t help opening in Happy Valley Saturday and hosting Pitt in the Backyard Brawl two weeks later.
Getting back to the mid-majors, if the big conferences do away with a non-conference game each year, it could mean Mid-American Conference (MAC) schools, and other Group of 5 (G5) schools could take a big hit financially.
Yes, most times when a G5 football team heads to a P4 school, they are aware going into the game they are in for a beating. But that one game, many times, also funds the entire athletic department for the whole year.
The ramifications of the recent changes in college sports, and most notably in football, will be felt from the top programs down to the smaller ones, and there are still questions to be answered.
Some of those answers will be new questions, but for the time being, the season is finally here, and not a second too soon.