Conference realignment has mangled the college sports map, but to what benefit?

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

The Power Five has been whittled down to a Super Four in college sports.

The Pac-12 was the victim, stripped for parts that were redistributed to its competitors for financial gain.

Beyond dollars moving from one bank account to another it’s hard to see the overall benefit, but the most disruptive round of conference realignment at the highest level of college sports appears to be almost over — at least for the near future.

“Are we better or worse? We’ll probably have to have that conversation in five years to see what the second-, third-, fourth-order effects of the decisions that have been made over the last two years,” California athletic director Jim Knowlton said Friday, hours after the Northern California school joined the Atlantic Coast Conference out of pure desperation.

Starting next year, Cal and Bay Area rival Stanford long with SMU, located in Dallas, will compete in an 18-school conference — 17 for football because Notre Dame remains an independent —- that until Friday had no members in states west of the Mississippi.

The ACC now joins the Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC as the super conferences of college sports, all with at least 16 members by August 2024.

The ACC was the last to arrive at the carcass of the Pac-12 after it was plundered by the Big Ten and Big 12 four weeks ago to the day.

“We’ve gone from regional-based conferences to national, coast-to-coast conferences,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said. “I think that’s a lesson for all of us as we all enjoy and love college sports. College sports is going through the next iteration of change and it’s been really drastic. I’m not sure any of us would have predicted this two years ago, but you either get busy or you get left behind.”

This all started in 2021, when it was revealed that Texas and Oklahoma would leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. That move at least made geographic sense, even if it only served to help the rich get richer and create shockwaves that are still being felt.

The Big Ten countered by going West and adding Southern California and UCLA in the summer of 2022.

The Big 12, weary of being realignment prey, became a predator and targeted the Pac-12 to eliminate a future competition for a shrinking pool of television dollars.

For the ACC, facing internal strife among its membership, expanding its footprint serves to address both short and potential long-term issues.

The ACC needs more money to close a widening gap between the SEC and Big Ten and the rest of the college sports. Expansion helps, though not enough for Florida State to vote for it.

Even with a contract that binds its members together legally though 2036, there has been enough saber-rattling in the ACC — especially by the Seminoles — to make the rest of the conference ponder the possibility of losing members before the deal runs out.

Phillips said…