LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 02: General view of action on the field with the mid-field logo during the … [+] Pac-12 Conference championship game between the Utah Utes and the USC Trojans on December 2, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesTV rights and cold, hard cash have dismantled the Pac-12. Not surprisingly, the negotiations that have led most of the conference’s teams to jump ship have been around football, as if football is the only NCAA sport that matters. Maybe in terms of money brought into athletics programs that’s true. Football generates revenues that fund much of the rest of athletics programs.
But most NCAA athletes aren’t football players, and, like it or not, they are deeply affected by conference realignments. In fact, all student athletes in the remaining power conferences will pay a high price for realignment, making clear that student-athlete welfare is not the top priority for power conferences. Money is.
Certainly, the money is important. On Twitter, I’ve seen many a sports fan argue that university presidents and athletics directors have a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the best financial deals possible for the schools.
A university, however, isn’t a business, and student-athletes aren’t employees. We shouldn’t turn college athletics into a business either because the ones who really pay the costs are our student-athletes.
Left Out and Left Behind I’m a professor at one of the four remaining Pac-12 schools, Oregon State University. We have not been invited to the dance. People in charge of these decisions seems to think we are somehow not quite up to par to deserve a place in the Big 10 or Big 12.
Indeed, our football program has struggled in recent years, although last season we had a 10-3 record, and we’re ranked number 18 in the pre-season coaches’ poll. Coach Jonathan Smith, who led the Beavers to their best record ever of 12-1, a Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame, and a number 4 national ranking in 2001, has begun to turn the program around. Who knows what this conference realignment may mean for Oregon State football now.
LAS VEGAS, NV – DECEMBER 17: Head coach Jonathan Smith of the Oregon State Beavers celebrates by … [+] holding up the Rossi Ralenkotter trophy after winning the SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl featuring the Florida Gators versus the Oregon State Beavers on December 17, 2022 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesIf Oregon State does not end up in a power conference, how much harder will it become for Coach Smith to recruit top talent? Many football players specifically want to play in a power conference. What will the loss of power conference revenue mean for Athletics and general budgets at OSU and for the university’s ability to recruit and retain top coaches to assist Coach Smith? How difficult will it become for Oregon State football to be nationally ranked if their schedule no longer includes mostly teams from power conferences? We just rebuilt an entire side of our stadium. How will we fill it if we’re no longer playing longtime rivals or nationally ranked programs?
We watched this near-death spiral during our NCAA record-making 28 straight losing seasons in football until the program started turning itself around in the late 1990s. Will all of this work end up being for nothing?
Football, however, is not the only NCAA sport at Oregon State. We have a baseball team that has won three College World Series championships. Our women’s basketball team in the last decade has gone to four Sweet 16s, two Elite Eights, and one Final Four. Our gymnastics team is a perennial top 20 team. Men’s soccer and wrestling are national contenders. Softball went to the College World Series quarter-finals in 2022.
Putting the “Student” in Student-Athlete In the world of big TV money and conference realignment, however, these sports don’t count. They don’t garner big audiences or earn a lot of revenue. In fact, they may cost a lot more to run than they bring into athletics coffers.
Ignoring these sports might make sense if a university were a business, but, as an institution of higher education, a university has a unique responsibility to its students, and student-athletes are just that—students.
Conferences that run from Oregon to Maryland will require a substantial travel burden on student-athletes. Already, the taxing schedule of practices and competitions requires considerable effort on the part of student-athletes to keep up with courses, take exams, write papers, and stay on track for graduation.
TEMPE, AZ – MAY 22: Arizona State Sun Devil Infielder Cydney Sanders (1) celebrates the record … [+] breaking 21st homerun in a season in school history with her teammates during the NCAA Div I Championship Regional Final softball game between the Arizona State Sun Devils and the San Diego State Aztecs on May 22, 2022, at Farrington Stadium in Tempe, AZ. (Photo by Zac BonDurant/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire via Getty ImagesStudent-athletes in non-football sports at some of the Pac-12 schools that have joined the Big 10 and Big 12 have started to speak out about how much harder the new travel schedule is going to be for them and how little they feel considered in conference realignment decisions.
While the transfer portal and the new Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules give student-athletes some choices and ways to earn a little extra money, none of the money from TV deals goes to student-athletes. So, they are expected to spend more time on airplanes and more time away from school, all in order to bring in more revenue they don’t personally see.
All student-athletes at Big 12 and Big 10 schools, no matter their sport, will have to make these sacrifices in order for conferences to realign around football revenue. Volleyball players, wrestlers, swimmers, and golfers will all have to travel long distances for conference play. Of course, we could argue that this revenue is what supports their sports, and so they should gladly participate in activities that fund their play.
Again, that might be true if universities were businesses, and student-athletes were employees. For most student-athletes, college sports are not a way to professional competition. Rather they are ways for students to participate in one form of campus life. These students compete because they love to play, but they’re at university because they want to earn a degree and start a profession.
If Not a Business, What Are College Sports? Universities provide opportunities for athletic participation as a way to enhance extracurricular options and the personal growth that comes with them and a way to encourage school spirit. So, universities have an obligation to students to provide possibilities to play sports that don’t necessarily earn significant revenue for the university.
FORT WORTH, TX – APRIL 13: Jade Carey of Oregon State University performs on the balance beam during … [+] the Division I Women’s Gymnastics Championship held at Dickies Arena on April 13, 2023 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Andy Hancock/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
NCAA Photos via Getty ImagesIf universities’ only concern were revenue, then football alone (and, in some schools, men’s basketball) should be offered and football only at schools where it earns money. That would eliminate most college sports programs entirely.
Obviously, college sports are about more than money, and conference realignment has completely ignored that. The NCAA has abdicated its responsibility to protect the rights of student-athletes, and university administrators have shown more concern for revenue than students, not to mention tradition, rivalries, alumni, and institutions like mine that could be negatively impacted by these realignments.
It seems it’s time for faculty, students, alumni, state legislators, and Congress to step in and demand accountability to universities’ missions and their students. Athletics programs need to balance their budgets, of course, but, if growing revenue means compromising student-athletes, then maybe we all need to rethink what college sports have become.