Conference Jumping

As I've covered at length here on Caught Looking, I've been a big fan of Ivy League sports for the past decade.  In addition to having attended one of the League's member schools as an undergraduate (so, admittedly, I'm biased), I really admire the consistency that accompanies the league year after year.  The Ivy League is what college sports should be all about - a competitive athletic outlet for students that complements, but is secondary to, a solid college education.  The same eight Ivy League schools compete against each other in every sport every season, and as a fan you know that each year you'll have the same seven opponents on the schedule to look forward to.

I understand that other NCAA conferences lack the Ivy League's tradition, and also have a lot more at stake - unlike the Ivy League, which is known more for its academic strength, other college leagues rely on sports to promote the value of their schools - so it's natural for these conferences to change member schools in the name of strengthening their competition and national footprint.  The Pac-10, for example, became the Pac-12 this year by adding Colorado and Utah chiefly to strengthen the conference's reach in the valuable Denver and Salt Lake City markets.

As a college sports fan, I think the advantages that college football and basketball have over the NFL and NBA are the rivalries.  While Jets vs. Patriots and Knicks vs. Heat are entertaining, they can't compete with Michigan vs. Ohio State football or Duke vs. North Carolina basketball in terms of fan passion and tradition.  While the professional leagues have the higher quality play, the college ranks have always been able to say that they have the heated rivalries that define sports competition.  The question, then, is what will all of the proposed conference realignments do to some of the nation's top rivalries?

With the Big-XII's future in jeopardy, we're in danger of damaging Texas vs. Oklahoma.  The Pac-12's land grab has already taken a bite out of Utah vs. BYU, and, if Texas A&M does move to the SEC, what will happen to its rivalries with Texas and Texas Tech?  Are we now living in a college sports world where Duke and UNC or Michican and Ohio State could at some point be detached in the name of profitability and market diversification?  While it may seem impossible, the same could have been said about splitting up Red River rivals Texas and Oklahoma just a few years ago. 

The idea of powerful NCAA "Super Conferences" might make sense from a media perspective, and there's certainly something attractive about pitting Texas, Michican, USC and Florida against each other in football every year some day.  But if the NCAA isn't careful, it might let all of the conference squabbling destroy the traditional rivalries that make NCAA sports so popular, and profitable, in the first place.  Without its great rivalries, the NCAA is at risk of turning itself into just an inferior version of the NFL and NBA.