Conference Realignment: Football's Gains Coming at Expense of Other Sports

If you have been able to keep track of all of the conference realignment talks, I salute you. Things seem to be changing at a rate that not even the schools can keep up with.

The primary motivation seems to be to set up football so it can find a better way to determine a National Champion.

There's a slight problem though; football is not the only sport that these schools play.

Let's look at TCU.

Sure, they have turned themselves into a football power in recent years, but how are they going to compete in the Big East when basketball season rolls around?

Sure, Syracuse and Pittsburgh are on their way out, but the Big East is still an incredibly deep basketball conference. TCU hasn't even made the NCAA Tournament since 1998.

It makes sense that football is a primary motivator. It makes these schools a lot of money—by far more than any other sport.

If a playoff were to ever take place, the money would only get bigger.

Still, a university is more than a football team. A university's athletic program is more than a football team. That can't be forgotten.

All of the realignment has been done for the sole purpose of finding a better way to declare a National Champion. Believe me, I am a College Football fan; I get that.

But it's also neglected a lot of other things. Traditional rivalries have already been put on the back burner, if even that.

Other sports have already been neglected to a degree. Now, with Pittsburgh and Syracuse leaving, Big East basketball has taken a hit. Yes, they will survive, but this loss hurts.

While it's had good football teams through the years, the Big East has always been a basketball conference. Now, teams that have been a big part of it don't seem to have much of a problem neglecting that.

And that's just basketball; a lot of other sports are being glazed over. Basketball just gets the most attention because it's the next most popular.

I have nothing against earning money. That helps the school as a whole and it certainly helps the athletic department, but the quest to find a better system for getting a National Champion in football has come at the expense of a lot of things.

I ask the Athletic Directors and Presidents to at least consider the other sports, as well as the rivalries that are in danger when making such dramatic moves.