It is certainly a volatile time in the big-money world of college athletics. The announcement last week that longtime PAC-12 stalwarts USC and UCLA are jumping to the Big Ten conference stunned the sports world and has set up a college football showdown between two monster-sized powerhouse conferences: the Big 10 and the SEC (who recently added Oklahoma and Texas).
The days of the actual “Big Ten”, the Big 12, the PAC-10, etc. are long, long gone. The question is do you think this is good for college football? Or are you a traditionalist that misses the regional rivalries? Put WCCO’s Henry Lake in the latter category.
“We’re in Minnesota,” Lake says. “We’re in Big Ten country. We got nothing to worry about. But if you're one of these other schools, that's a part of like the PAC-12? You got to be ticked off. Because it's the end, it's the beginning of the end for the PAC-12.”
Lake says he liked the tradition of the Big Ten, PAC-12 rivalry, especially in the Rose Bowl which now will have to totally reinvent how they fill that game.
“I'm a traditionalist man,” says Lake. “We're going to get our fill of going to see Big Ten games because it's right down the street. So it's not going to really bother us at all. And if eventually that day comes, knock on wood, that the Gophers play in a Big Ten title game, whatever, we're gonna go to Indianapolis or wherever the game is going to be. We'll be just fine. Or if they ever get to get to Pasadena, then we'll go. But at the end of the day, I am into the tradition of college sports and this breaks from tradition. I don't like that. The same way when it used to be Oklahoma facing Nebraska back in the Big Eight many, many years ago and all that stuff. Now you've got all these teams jumping to the SEC that I don't like.
Now we’re looking at two superpowers in college football that both stretch (nearly) coast-to-coast. Early reports suggest each school in the Big Ten could reap financial rewards of $100 million per season soon. That leaves a handful of bigger schools looking for homes. We’re looking at you Notre Dame.
“People will say this is great for the business of college sports,” says the host of WCCO’s Lake Night. “Maybe so economically. And by the way, the Big Ten is negotiating their next TV deal. This enhances that package.
But in my opinion though, I'm not a fan.”
The movement is sure to continue, especially with teams like Oregon and Washington stuck in a much less competitive PAC-12. There are also schools to the east that could be looking for a home in the SEC such as North Carolina and Clemson.
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