Recently, my alma mater Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh applied to join the ACC. Both were accepted. I had very mixed feelings. I attended Syracuse during the halcyon days of Big East Basketball. We were one of the original 3 Big East schools. We pulled the first major upset, beating Villanova for the Big East Tournament Championship in 1982 with a very mediocre squad. The Big East placed 3 teams in the Final Four in 1985, then 2 in the Final Four in 1987. The 1987 NCAA Championship saw Syracuse lose by a point in the final seconds as Indiana' Keith Smart nailed a jumper in the final seconds. Over the years, the Georgetown/Syracuse and the University of Connecticut/Syracuse rivalries have been heated and seen many legendary games. Syracuse's 6 overtime Big East Tournament victory over UConn in 2009 was the kind of game you only hope to see, and wind up telling your children about.
Big East men's basketball has had 6 NCAA Champions in the last 27 years. Women's basketball has seen many more, as the University of Connecticut Huskies have set a new standard for the term 'Excellence' when it comes to sporting achievements. In 32 years, it has won 28 championships in 6 different sports.
On the other hand, Big East football has seen very few important moments, has never really developed a strong following, and has not helped its best teams rise. In some respects, Big East football is a bit of a joke even though programs like UConn and Rutgers have managed to revive themselves. Over the years, it has been football that drives conference alignments because of the revenues involved.
As other conferences grew and focused on their revenues, the Big East played it safe. They lost Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech in 2005. Hardliners in the conference scoffed, and I count myself among them. There was no way the move would benefit those teams (it hasn't really, but they've done better than they would have in the Big East). The Big East was clumsy. It just couldn't get the job done for those schools, nor for the two which recently left.
So it comes to this. I'm disappointed that a legendary arrangement is going to disappear. I've made my peace with it. Then a college friend sent me this obituary for the Syracuse/Big East relationship, and it cemented my view:
"My first feeling was this was like being a kid when your mom dumps step-dad #1 for the guy next door in the mansion. Wait a minute, weren't we fine? Mansion guy is a bit of a jerk, always keeping our ball that goes into his yard. His kids are amazingly arrogant for really no reason. Well, step-dad's a drunk, he doesn't have any vision or ambition and makes us support his other 8 kids who contribute nothing other than a fun weekend in NYC in March. If mom doesn't take the leap, some other cheap harlot will take mansion guy's offer and we'll be stuck with evicted step-dad who will soon be deadbeat dad. So we move in with mansion guy and take one of our ugly brothers (Pitt) with us because mansion guy likes even numbers. The view is much nicer from the new house and there is actually some joy in watching one of the brothers whining that he wants to join us. We never liked brother UConn, anyway, and we'll take some joy in watching him get slapped around a bit. Besides, there's a brother from just outside of NY (Rutgers) who might be able to get us into all the cool parties and a half brother out in Indiana (Notre Dame) who has a ton of connections."
What I care about, and what drives my interest is meaningless. We live in a world that is driven by money, and I won't deny that it's important for every organization to pay attention to the bottom line. As a result, the world of college sports is changing dramatically, like the family my friend described. Conferences are now becoming Super-Conferences and signing huge multimillion dollar TV rights. Old college rivalries are being reset in order to accomodate the needs of the revenue models which drive these conferences. Teams are signing agreements to have their own networks, further altering the conference and revenue arrangements. It's a final acceptance by the NCAA of a concept we've all been aware of for so long.
The pain of watching my old conference rivalries die is secondary to a much larger issue. The concept of the student-athlete. The charade has long been recognized, but is finally beginning to unravel entirely. The current moves that are taking place are going to force changes, and one is eventually going to be that many of these athletes simply aren't students, and are merely minor league players biding their time or proving themselves worthy of a pro contract. As they do so, they are earning their 'Universities' huge revenues. Payment is being demanded, and soon will have to be paid to these 'students'.
It's time to change the paradigm, and it's time for the NCAA to finally come clean about what drives college sports. Because it isn't the education, or the scholarships, as they claim. My friend's allegory may have a happy ending for my school...but as family stories go, the NCAA is hitting a brick wall. It may have a mansion, but it's populated with quite a few unseemly characters.
