The chaotic world of college athletics has my head spinning.
The emotions are all over the map: shock, sadness, acceptance, excitement, disappointment, revulsion. And none of this stems from last year’s burning topics of NIL and the transfer portal.
There’s been the ongoing Northwestern hazing scandal followed by the gambling sting that saw seven Iowa and Iowa State athletes being charged with alleged sports wagering violations, with all reportedly betting on their own schools.
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But nothing can top the jolt that shook up the sports world when five Pac-12 schools bolted what has been called the Conference of Champions.
In each instance — except for the twisted hazing allegations at Northwestern, which I’ll get to later — it all came down to what most humans covet the most: money.
For all the schools — Oregon and Washington deciding early Friday to join the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah later in the evening fleeing for the Big 12 (following Colorado a few weeks earlier) — it was a choice of hopping on board the fast-moving money train or being left stranded at the station.
The jumping on, or off, point was the media rights deals that the Big Ten and the Big 12 have and the Pac-12 does not.
Last August, the Big Ten finalized media rights contracts with CBS, Fox and NBC that will pay more than $8 billion over seven years. According to the Sports Business Journal, it was the most lucrative conference rights deal in the history of college athletics.
It’s striking just comparing what the conferences are projected to offer each member school annually from their future media rights deals.
The SEC, according to sportico.com, will dole out about $66 million to each member, the Big Ten more than $60 million apiece and the Big 12 about $32 million. The Pac-12 was looking at less than $20 million. Furthermore, the Pac-12’s proposed media package was not with a linear TV network but with a streaming service, Apple+.
The payouts last season under the previous contract show a serious cash discrepancy: Big Ten ($58.8 million), SEC ($50 million), the Pac-12 ($37 million).
Even with Oregon and Washington, as new invitees, receiving a half Big Ten share at $30 million, it was a move that had to be made, a fiscally responsible decision for the health — and wealth — of their athletic programs.
Still, being a Pac-12 fan and a Duck alum, seeing Oregon and Washington leave their regional brethren left me in sorrow.
What’s going to happen to those intrastate rivalry games I was so fond of following — the so-called Civil War between Oregon and Oregon State and the Apple Cup between UW and Washington State? It would be sad to see those disappear.
And what’s going to become of Stanford’s athletic program if it’s not picked up by one of the football-driven, big-money conferences? (The Mountain West Conference is not in that financial class.)
The Cardinal have the best overall athletic program in the nation, winning the 2023 Directors Cup for its 26th time in 29 years.
They boast world-class athletes at all levels. Ever heard of Katie Ledecky? Or John McEnroe? Or Tiger Woods? They all won NCAA championships while at Stanford.
With its standard of academic excellence, would Stanford even want to continue playing football on the elite level?
Northwestern hazing
Like Stanford, Northwestern is an esteemed academic institution. According to usnews.com, the school in Evanston, Ill., ranks No. 10, mentioned among institutions such as Princeton (No. 1), MIT (2), Harvard (3), Stanford (4), Yale (5) and so on.
The school has top 10 rankings in business (No. 2), education (3), speech language pathology (2), chemistry (6), economics (8) and law (10).
But what’s happening in athletics is disturbing and revolting, even if half of it is true.
Since the news broke last month, about a dozen lawsuits — with more expected to come — have been filed against the school and some former administrators. It’s not just John or Jane Does in the lawsuit. Former quarterback Lloyd Yates was the first named plaintiff. He was followed by former offensive lineman Ramon Diaz and former linebacker Simba Short.
The hazing was more than bullying but was reportedly described as being racist and sexualized in nature and they were often carried out by players, not just coaches.
Even as bad or maybe worse is that the pervasive and perverted culture went so deep — going back more than 15 years according to reports. It needs to be eradicated.
SMU is the only football program to receive the NCAA’s death penalty.
Northwestern should take it upon itself to become the second.
Iowa gambling
It wasn’t a total shock when seven current and former athletes from Iowa and Iowa State were charged this week for allegedly sports wagering violations. It’s happened before and it’s even harder to stop now, especially with online wagering being so easily accessible.
What was surprising was the report the came out Thursday in which one of the state agencies involved in the investigation, as reported by the Associated Press, announced that no evidence had been discovered to suggest the integrity of any contest involving the schools was affected by gambling interests.
Wait, what?
How could it not affect the integrity of the game?
All seven were charged with placing bets on their own schools. Worse yet, the athletes involved included a quarterback, a kicker and a basketball player.
Whenever I see a basketball player I think of how easily a player can manipulate the point spread by shaving points — a practice that goes back to the 1950s, with the City College of New York scandal that involved 32 players and seven colleges.
It still occurred as recent as 1994 at Arizona State, which was featured in a Netflix documentary called “Bad Sports.”
And let’s not overlook the walk-on kicker who did not see the field that season. But lemme guess, he’s in the same special teams’ meetings and probably knows the snapper, holder and starting place-kicker well. Don’t you think those close relationships and knowing their health and mindset is similar to insider trading?
The optics are bad. Losing the trust not only violates the integrity of the game, it’s a game-ender.
