Big Money, We All Need It - College Football - Part 2

    I lost some control of my last post, where I copied and pasted part of the subtitle of my blog that I created in 2014. Hence, the second part now, so I can write with the regular styles of black and white. Font and text background issues. First world problems.

    Anyway, where I left off was talking about all the hundreds of things that I would like to write about. Some issues are much easier to broach and engage than others. Sports, for example.

    What else? In no ultimate or particular order:

    1. History.

    2. Morals.

    3. Life

    4. Literature

    5. Religion

    6. Sports

    7. the world

    8. geography

    9. Improvement

    10. God

    11. Professions

    12. Stories

    13. Virtues

    14. Crimes

    15. Books

    16. Art

    17. Music

    18. Academia

    19. Economics

    20. Other social sciences

    21. Philosophy

    22. Existence

    23. Sociology

    Leave it at that, I suppose; that takes in a lot.

    So anyway, on to discussing college football, money, and human nature. As I had originally intended. Today, Sunday morning.

    On a normal Sunday I like to write about things in the spirit of the Sabbath, as I recognize it. Something of a spiritual nature. Today's topic of UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten has some things to do with religion, worship, and money, which most people would acknowledge have similar characteristics. What we put value on is what we adore, what we devote ourselves to, what we think about, what drives us, what we center ourselves on.

    College football? Okay, not exactly. Some of us get more involved and invested in the sport and our teams than other folks, yes.

    Some people are more involved in their college athletics than any religion involvement. For some fans following college football may be more demanding or consuming than participation in organized religion or other spiritual activity. I will leave that as a note for conjecture for another day.

    For here? Sports and intercollegiate athletics, ruled and guided by institutions like the NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletics Association. It's complicated, but understandable.

    I happened to grow up a mere few miles, (2.5?) from a Big Ten venue, including of course the basketball arena (this is Indiana), and the other twenty or so college sports, to include baseball, soccer, track and field, tennis, wrestling, volleyball, swimming and diving, golf, rowing, softball, and of course, the big revenue maker: American football. I left out a couple, but it revolves around twenty.

    As a kid, we actually were ten teams in the Big Ten. We competed nationally in the major and more minor sports, to include soccer, swimming, and track. Or wrestling. We had big fan bases, which created a lot of success and wealth. This is a good model, right? To emulate. Sure, it comes full circle to 2022. It grew for decades, this culture of competition and prosperity. Alumni still flocked to these teams decades after graduation. Big donations and participation was a norm.

    Penn State was added in the early 1990s, which brought more fame, acclaim, and success to this Midwestern conference. Eleven. Now in 8 contiguous states

    My private school alma mater BYU was not satisfied with the expanded Western Athletic Conference in the 1990s, so it created the Mountain West, a more exclusive conference trying to be a bit more like the Big Ten. Wealthier, bigger fan bases. Or more like the PAC-10, of the western states. The envied counterpart of the Big Ten. But the PAC-10 brought in Utah and Colorado around 2010, which left BYU wanting. It tried independence when spurned by the newly formed PAC-12, which Notre Dame has been forever, even though it has strong ties with the Atlantic Coast Conference. BYU has mostly tried to be like Notre Dame. Some people scoff at that notion, but it has had some traction and pull. Save that notion for another day.

    Savvy? Confused? Sure, the whole map changes and shifts over time. It has not and will not stop. Money and power moves constantly, and so does college football.

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    Before I continue about the football conferences and that kind of money and influence, let me discuss the non-revenue sports and women sports. Which can affect the former, the college football world. Which is vast and growing. Always.

    All these questions of fairness and equity have some play in the whole matter.

    Back in the 1970s, I believe, the NCAA approved Title IX (9), which mandated that women would have equal, or near-equal representation and participation in athletics at the highest levels. This meant that the number of accredited, sanctioned, and funded sports programs would be equal in numbers and scope per school. So, if a college had football that included only men players, the school had to provide another sport where women could compete. Like say, volleyball. This meant a college could have a men's football team, a women's volleyball squad (disparate in numbers of players), and all the rest might even out: soccer, baseball/softball, swimming, tennis, golf, etcetera. Men and women could each have say, twenty sports programs.

    One of a few issues with this is that football, then men's basketball, usually bring in the most money to the coffers of the schools, which includes marketing and television, and the sheer numbers of those who alight on the stadiums and arenas across the land. Money is created and sustained by the big two men's sports. Occasionally the women's program at a university might to better in money and influence, but that is rare.

    This is big money; part of the fun and joy of athletic success is the school to be bigger, better, winning, glory bound. And this involves the biggest and fastest athletes, who are prototypically men. Football and basketball.

    So, football is the engine that drives a ton of these modern changes in conferences and allegiances. Money, power, fortune, glory. Some say mere "security" or prosperity, self-sustainment, but at the end of the day, fans and institutions want a chance to win it all. Alabama. Notre Dame. Texas. USC. That is, the So Cal Trojans. Ohio State. Michigan. These schools need the chance to compete and be ultimately victorious.

    Although, to be more honest, UCLA, i.e. the Bruins of Los Angeles claims that many of their sports programs, including women's teams, were in the red and possibly looked to be eliminated. For UCLA is appeared that extinction and survival were the question of this conference move. 

 

    Hmmm. Poor budgetary management? Perhaps. California as a state always presents weird and ruinous monetary or financial issues. Okay, the Midwest will bale you out now. USC, a private well financially endowed school, felt limited and dragged down by much of the PAC-12.

    Huh. Sorry, Utah. You were not good enough. Not for Southern Cal.

    Well, that is it for now. Part 2, leaves questions and a few answers.

Blog on, and I may write a Part 3 soon. Like, who will move next?

And also, the Big Ten already expanded to 14 prior to now, more about TV markets.