USC, UCLA, the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and the University of Utah have all officially left the PAC-12. These teams will be joining the Big Ten or Big 12 in 2024. The downfall of the PAC-12 came from the lack of media deals within the conference for one sport…football. College football brings in tons of money for schools and moving conferences means that these teams can make the schools even more money. However, what about the programs that don't bring in loads of money? What are their lives going to look like with the new conference realignment?
Many of the country's largest schools spend millions of dollars every year sending their football team on a private plane to their games. However, football, and sometimes basketball, are the only sports that have this luxury. Other sports teams will fly commercial airlines to get to their games. This means added time of waiting in the airport, checking bags, possibilities for delays or cancellations, a longer time boarding, and a longer time trying to get out of the airport. These PAC-12 teams that are joining the Big Ten and Big 12 are going to have to spend even more time in the airport now that their games are going to be across the country.
Let's take the sport of soccer as an example. The furthest flight (distance) for these teams will be from USC or UCLA to Rutgers. This direct flight is about five and a half hours long. Other flights don't have direct options, so players could spend around 10 hours flying to their games. Before the conference realignment, UCLA teams would play other California teams like Stanford and Cal Berkeley. The furthest school they traveled to in their conference was the University of Colorado, which was only 2 and a half hours. Most soccer teams play their games on a Thursday and a Sunday. This means that for many weeks, players will miss at least three days of school to travel to their games. The players will have to do homework, take tests, and write papers during the days that they are traveling. They will have to do all this work for the classes that they missed. How are players supposed to do well in their classes if they have to miss half a week of class every other week?
In between games on Thursday and Sunday, players will have practice and will have to finish the work they still have from missing so many days of school. Not only this, but when players could get home from the airport at around 3 AM and still have no time to rest. They will have to get up for their classes the next day plus they will have to go to lifts and practice. Lack of sleep can be a killer for college athletes. Poor athletic performance, academic performance, and poor mental health can all come from inadequate sleep.
Head coach of the University of Alabama, Nick Saban, said of the realignment to 247Sports,
I think one thing I would just hope that we would keep in mind in all the choices and decisions we make relative to what we do in college athletics is the student-athlete. They're here to get an education. Hopefully, some of the choices and decisions that we make for college athletics in the future will impact them in a positive way. I hope that we can keep that a priority.
Football players will be fine in this conference realignment. The realignment was made for them. They have the budget and resources to only focus on the new teams that they will be playing. Every other sport with a smaller budget, soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, tennis, volleyball, swim/dive, track and field/cross country, baseball/softball, crew, etc., will be impacted by the time constraints that this conference realignment will put on them. Schools have become so focused on money that they forget about the athletes that have to deal with the consequences of their decisions.
