In all sports on all levels, High School, College, and Professional, teams are grouped together in divisions, leagues, conferences, etc. And the one and only reason for this is geography. Teams play other teams nearby. It’s just the way it works. Except in the new world of College Football (which in turn is messing up all the other college sports), where the only thing that matters is money from television and Bowl games. Schools are constantly moving to bigger and better conferences to try to increase their potential earnings. So in turn the conferences they have left behind scramble to pilfer whoever they can from even smaller leagues. It’s complete chaos. And it’s brought us to this:
Those are all the states that will have teams competing in the new “Big East” conference; with the news last week that SMU, San Diego St, Houston, Boise St, and Central Florida are joining the league. I can’t wait to someday have this conversation with one of my buddies in NYC:“Hey, want to go to a Big East Tournament game at Madison Square Garden?”
“Yeah, Definitely! Who can we see? Syracuse-Georgetown? St. Johns-Villanova? UConn-Providence?”
“Um no, sorry. It’s Houston vs. Central Florida.”
Moments like this from last spring will be a thing of the past.
The NCAA needs to blow it all up and start over. Obviously that’s not possible, but if conferences are not based at least primarily on the location of the schools, there is no reason for them to exist.
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About Mark Vandeusen