College Football's Messy Divorce

Stop calling it realignment. This is a divorce.

For years, we’ve been inching closer to this moment. The moment than Mom and Dad sit us down on the living room couch, tell us they love us and then abruptly break the news: The family is splitting up.

For the sport we know and love, this untimely break is happening in front of our very eyes. And while this isn’t net new news or totally unexpected, it doesn’t make the sting hurt any less.

College football’s journey has been a winding one, filled with lots of ups and a few downs. The sports oceanic crust has always been shifting–toward bigger, bolder, more. And just like Mom and Dad’s relationship, in a way, you could see the slow march toward the inevitable.

In the early days, it was the scuttling of the Southwest Conference and the collapse of the Big East. Then came the first major shift of the modern game, where we saw the likes of Colorado, Missouri and Nebraska bolt from the Big 12. Then came an even more seismic moment–USC and UCLA’s decision to leave convention and good sense in the dust for greener pastures in the Big 10. Next came Coloardo’s reversal to go home back to the Big 12.

Today, we got what feels like a death blow in every sense of the word. Washington and Oregon are heading east to the Big 10, leaving their fellow Pac-12 counterparts blowing in the wind like damp linens on a clothesline. This move crushes what remains of the Pac-12 conference, and indefinitely fractures the construct of football in the American West. It’s a true end of an era.

The fate of the rest of the conference remains to be seen. Depending on who you believe, the Big 12 will likely snatch up the newly vacant real estate named Arizona, Arizona State and Utah. The path forward looks a lot murkier for our lovable wild cousins Oregon State and Washington State. Not to mention the brainiacs of the family in Cal and Stanford.

As I would imagine with a lot of divorces, it comes down to a few likely reasons. Divorces often happen because of some level of infidelity, money problems or simply a drifting apart. In this case, it feels a little like all three.

The infidelity starts with USC and UCLA, continued with Colorado and now ends with Oregon and Washington. What was once a fruitful and strong relationship between the conference and its lifelong partners, quickly faded. The Big 10 was the younger, more attractive option and it didn’t take much for the LA schools to slip off their wedding rings and indulge to their hearts’ and wallets’ desires.

Colorado left a once solid relationship for another, only to realize they made a big mistake. They had to put in overtime and earn the trust back of the Big 12. And Oregon and Washington, shoot, where do I begin? They saw an opportunity and took it. Kids, family dog and years of marriage be damned.

When the money is good, usually people are happy. When the money dries up, well, things get tough and people often want a way out. This was the case with the state of the Pac-12 and their shocking bag-fumbling attempt at a new TV deal.

George Kliavkoff, renowned for his business acumen and good fortune in the casino business, started off his tenure as commissioner with a bang. He gushed about the health of the league and remained adamant he’d land the plane on a treacherous TV right deal by 2024.

But no matter how smart or good at his job he is or could’ve been, the moment USC and UCLA dropped their departure news, he was working with a hand behind his back. The LA schools were the tentpoles of the league, and without them (as evidenced by the current state of affairs), it was always going to be a challenge to salvage a good deal.

It’s no surprise that both Oregon and Washington balked at the idea of teaming up with Apple TV for a streaming deal. That’s an unnecessary risk, especially when the prospect of safety and security lies east.

That $20 million-a-year number was just never going to cut it.

In both life and football, sometimes shit happens. In a way, it’s not surprising that people sometimes drift apart.

And maybe for the Pac-12, this was always coming.

USC and UCLA always felt bigger, stronger, more powerful than their conference counterparts. Oregon and Washington in recent years weren’t too far behind. There was just a clear divide–not any different than in the haves and have-nots in the business world or in other college football conferences.

But it doesn’t make it any less shitty.

If you had told me 10 years ago that USC and UCLA would be conference foes with Rutgers and Nebraska, I’d ask for your dealer. If you’d told me that we’d be facing the prospect of no more Apple Cup or Civil War or (and I can’t believe I’m even saying it…PAC 12 AFTER DARK), I’d want to fight you right then and there.

And yet here we are. It’s a new world and I don’t like it. Not one bit.

The unfortunate reality of any divorce–especially one where offspring are involved–is that the children are oftentimes put in an impossible position. Mom vs. Dad. Good vs. Evil.

In this separation, we, the college football fans at large, are the children of divorce.

Some might say the players are part of this, too. And maybe in a way, they are. Their jobs as student-athletes get harder with travel. A lot of these young men will probably play games hundreds of miles from home, making it harder to play in front of working-class parents and families. That’s all true.

But in a way, I think we’re so far gone from conferences or the college football governing bodies caring about student-athlete welfare, that it’s laughable at this point. It’ll probably get worse, but we’re definitely at the point of no return in terms of more games, more mileage, more, more, more.

But for the fans, man this really sucks.

Conference shapeshifting is robbing fans of some of the things we love most: rivalries, passion, and good, old-fashioned hate for the fella next door. And all of a sudden we’re supposed to just adopt new rivalries, find new people to hate? I don’t know. It’s a tough sell.

I try not to get too sappy or have a too “woe as me” mentality…especially when it comes to something that is supposed to be fun like college football. But I can’t help but feel for the little guys. What is to become of Washington State and Oregon State? What happens to the Apple Cup and Civil War? How do you feel if you’re Wake Forest, Syracuse or hell, even Vanderbilt?

It very much feels like we’ve collectively let the genie out of the bottle, and we have no way of putting it back in.

As a former child of divorce, I’d argue that divorce should rarely ever be considered good. Sure, there are some instances where it’s applicable and very true. But it also signifies the end of something that, at one point, was good and is now untenable and bad. It can’t go on, no matter how hard one side wants it to.

I am someone who wholeheartedly loves the sport. I try my damndest to take a whole hog approach, and to embrace the weird and good and bad and everything in between. But this feels like something I can’t love.

So as we, as fans, collectively peel ourselves from the couch, and watch Mom and Dad go their separate ways, all we can do is remember the good times. Because, oh man, there were some really good times. And hope for a tenable future.

College football isn’t dying…no matter how much it sorta kinda feels that way in the moment. And maybe someday we can go to college football therapy and unpack that on a couch of our own.

But for now, it feels very appropriate to mourn.

Every August, I clammer for everything that comes with college football. The 12-hour days on the couch, the tailgates, the shitposting online, the late nights, all of it.

This August, it feels a little bit different. As the tectonic plates of corporate college football greed shift around us, all we can do is fans is hold on to what we’ve got, for the little time left that we still have it.