Padecky: College sports should embrace the inevitable, a nationwide big-school conference

USC and UCLA will be joining the Big Ten. Until Thursday, the only thing the two schools had in common was the joy of not being in the Big Ten, the conference with no beaches but plenty of earmuffs and overcoats.

Texas and Oklahoma will soon join the Southeastern Conference and only a geographic dyslexic would say those two schools are in the Southeast.

The Big Ten has 14 schools, soon to be 16 and, if the latest Sports Illustrated reporting is accurate, could be the Big 22 if Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford, Utah and Colorado join.

Later in this column you’ll be asked to name all the schools that will be in both conferences in 2024 without needing a shot of Wild Turkey.

One could simplify all of this by doing what America did during Watergate 50 years ago — follow the money. In 2021, each Pac-12 school received a $19.8 million payout from a television rights contract. Each Big Ten school, on the other hand, received $46.1 million. Each SEC school received $54.6 million.

So the next paragraph should be read with caution.

“We are excited,” said USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn, “that our values align with the league’s member institutions.”

Meaning, we want to light our cigars with $100 bills, too.

Inherent in this money grab are two underemphasized developments that pushed and will continue to push the desire for schools to keep adding to their pot of gold.

First, there was the tidal wave caused by the creation of “Name, Image, Likeness” rules. College athletes — just like high school ones so privileged — can now can make money off their names. Kids, some of them still teenagers, have clout before even stepping on a college campus.

Those big-time kids now are known to big-time college recruiters. How does a school convince these kids that their college is where the athlete should land? “We can enhance your brand!” will be the pitch. Nothing enhances a brand like money, unless you think history and school colors turn heads. No one over the age of 10 believes a premier athlete who wants to go to the NFL selects a college because of their chem lab.

The second unreported development is ego. College football is tired of the SEC dominance. No area of the country inhales college football like the South. A team from the southern United States has won the last seven and 15 of the last 16 national championships. And no school from the South inhales it deeper and with more resonance than Alabama. The Crimson Tide has won six national titles during that time.

Make no mistake — the Big Ten’s land grab is a direct response to the South in general and the SEC in particular. College football in that region is very much a religion and it wasn’t an idle acquisition when the SEC welcomed Texas and Oklahoma into the fold for next year. Only those obsessed with the sport need apply there.

Which is why Stanford and Cal and just about everyone in the Pac-12 is quite content living and enjoying life outside of the SEC Dome. Thursday’s announcement of the USC and UCLA defection, however, effectively spells the end of Pac-12 relevance. Oh, it may add a school like Fresno State to fill its roster, but it is now a toothless tiger. Actually, it has been for awhile. Oregon in 2014 and Washington in 2016 have been the only Pac-12 schools to make it into the College Football Playoff.

Truth to tell, Thursday’s announcement is hardly unique. Conferences change names and schools about as often as America changes presidents. The list is long and amusing as well. Once there was a Pac-8 and then a Pac-10 and then a Pac-12 and soon it may become the Slim-6.

A solution exists to finally call an end to the absurdity of a California school playing a conference opponent in Indiana. End this mess by copying what the NFL has done successfully.

Call it the Super Conference, with six 10-team divisions. Apologies for schools placed out of region to complete brackets.

The West Division: USC. UCLA. Stanford. Cal. Washington. Washington State. Arizona. Arizona State. Oregon. Oregon State.

The Mountain Division: Colorado. Utah. Texas. Oklahoma. Houston. Colorado State. BYU. Boise State. Fresno State. Nevada.

The Midwest Division: Kansas. Kansas State. Iowa. Iowa State. Nebraska. Texas A&M. Missouri. Oklahoma State. Louisiana State. Arkansas.

The Lakes Division: Illinois. Indiana. Wisconsin. Minnesota. Notre Dame. Ohio State. Purdue. Cincinnati. Michigan. Michigan State.

The East Division: Penn State. Duke. Virginia. North Carolina. North Carolina State. Virginia Tech. South Carolina. Maryland. Clemson. Tennessee.

The South Division: Florida. Alabama. Mississippi. Mississippi State. Georgia. Georgia Tech. Miami. Kentucky. Auburn. Florida State.

This is the final destination for college football. After the NCAA or whatever iteration of it comes next with its capital letters, when fans, coaches and administrators finally tire of musical chairs, college football will park it on permanence. Geographic rivalries will remain. An illusion will be created that everyone has a chance. The big boys will still be the big boys.

The regular season will have to be reduced by at least two, probably three, games to accommodate the playoffs. Teams not making the playoffs will still participate in meaningless and immediately forgotten bowl games, as they do now. No more goofy Big Ten with 16 teams. No more teams flying 2,000 miles during the regular season for a game as USC or UCLA will do. College presidents will risk the health of young men by adding a play-in game to boost revenue.

The championship game will be called the Google Bowl, with the tech giant more than happy to kick an extra billion to the winner.

It all makes terrible, logical sense because it’ll be embraced by fans, NIL stars and university accountants alike. This time, “follow the money” won’t land anyone in jail. Took me 50 years to write that.

To comment, write to bobpadecky@gmail.com.