That is the 
finish of the world as we all know it, and if I’m John Wildhack or one in every of scores of different main school athletic administrators, I’m not feeling wonderful. After final week’s seismic shifting information that USC and UCLA had been bolting the Pac-12 for the riches of the Large Ten Convention, Wildhack needs to be questioning what the subsequent transfer is for the Syracuse College sports activities applications he oversees.
The one factor sure in school athletics today is uncertainty — and unbridled greed. The bloating of the Large Ten (which, with the addition of the Trojans and Bruins in 2024, will boast 16 colleges) isn’t over. Extra strikes are certain to return as the big Large Ten and Southeastern Convention (SEC) stage livid arms races that threaten to cut back the Large 5 energy conferences to the Large Two.
We prognosticated years in the past that the soccer juggernaut colleges would ultimately break free from the equally avaricious and dysfunctional NCAA and type their very own super-duper convention. It seems that day of reckoning is upon us. “Apocalypse now” is the apt description.
The poaching of USC and UCLA by a convention that isn’t good about counting its variety of members however certain is sweet about counting {dollars} has propelled this Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest sport into warp pace. The SEC bought the avalanche rolling when it stole Texas and Oklahoma from the Large 12 a yr in the past. Now there’s speak concerning the SEC raiding the Atlantic Coast Convention (ACC) to seize Clemson and Florida State, and maybe Miami and Virginia, too.
The inaccurately named Large Ten isn’t finished, both. Oregon and Washington wish to be a part of USC and UCLA, however Large Ten officers have advised them they’ll have to attend, as a result of the league reportedly is courting Notre Dame closely. The Irish have a nationwide model and a tv cope with NBC that has poured lots of of hundreds of thousands into their athletic coffers. Notre Dame would like to stay a soccer impartial and proceed its free settlement of taking part in its non-football sports activities schedule within the ACC; however the actually massive Large Ten would make excellent sense, given its geography and clout that quickly might land it a billion-dollar-plus TV and streaming deal. The Irish should marvel about the way forward for the ACC. Ought to the 4 aforementioned colleges depart for the SEC, that would be the loss of life knell for the ACC.
Which brings us to Syracuse. The Orange program is not any stranger to the permutations of convention realignment. A century in the past, when the likes of Harvard, Yale and Cornell had been soccer powerhouses, SU thought of becoming a member of the Ivy League, however some dangerous blood between the Orange and the Large Pink on the gridiron thwarted the transfer. Syracuse remained impartial till 1980, when it turned a constitution member of the Large East. That association labored marvelously, particularly in basketball, for nearly 20 years. However like different conferences, the Large East ultimately turned too massive for its personal britches, increasing into areas that made no geographic or athletic sense. At one level, greater than half of the convention’s colleges didn’t discipline Division I soccer applications, which tremendously difficult issues.
As the primary decade of this century drew to an in depth, school realignment reared its ugly head once more. Although broadly criticized for steering SU to the ACC a decade in the past, athletics director Daryl Gross actually had no alternative. Sure, the geography of the change was awkward, nevertheless it helped that SU was becoming a member of forces with longtime rivals Boston Faculty and Pitt. And Syracuse solely enhanced its educational profile and scholar recruitment by associating itself with the likes of Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. Some colleges, resembling Connecticut, waited too lengthy to align with a Energy 5 convention, and located themselves on the skin trying in. The Huskies’ as soon as promising soccer program is now the dregs.
A decade later, Syracuse finds itself pondering the query The Conflict as soon as posed to punk rock followers: “Ought to I keep or ought to I’m going now?” It’s an existential question for ‘Cuse sports activities, given the precarious way forward for the ACC. Six years in the past, the convention reportedly sought to discourage colleges from leaping ship by passing a grant of rights decision, which legally secured the ACC tv and streaming rights of its members by means of 2036. So, even when two-time soccer nationwide soccer champion Clemson had been to flee, the broadcasting and digital revenues the Tigers earned from their new convention must be shared with ACC colleges. Some have referred to as the decision air-tight, nevertheless it’s by no means been legally challenged, and who is aware of what would occur had been it litigated. We may quickly discover out. And if it had been struck down, the floodgates would burst open and the ACC may be on life help.
When requested about UCLA’s dramatic transfer final week, Bruins’ athletics director Martin Jarmond cited the hazards of inertia, telling ESPN, “We can’t afford to face nonetheless.”
Ought to the ACC dissolve, the actually massive Large Ten may be a great match for Syracuse. If Pitt and Boston Faculty had been to hitch the Orange, they’d be capable to preserve their longstanding Japanese rivalries and revive previous ones with Penn State. One of many different unknowns is how massive the Large Ten and SEC need to turn into. Twenty colleges apiece just isn’t out of the query — perhaps even 30 apiece.
Personally, I hate what’s taking place to main school sports activities. I’m not naïve. They’ve at all times been massive enterprise, however up to now decade, the pursuit of the almighty greenback has kicked into hyperdrive. It’s so uncontrolled. The place it ends is anybody’s guess, nevertheless it doesn’t appear to be it’s going to finish effectively for a school sports activities world that has turn into manner too massive.
Greatest-selling writer and nationally honored journalist Scott Pitoniak is the Rochester Enterprise Journal sports activities columnist.