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Media & Entertainment Law

: Sports Biz

Conference Realignment Western Style: Blood Flows Into the Great Salt Lake

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It's often said about departmental politics in colleges and universities that the politics is so brutal because the stakes are so small. Maybe that's why the conference realignment game being played out among the Mountain West, WAC and West Conference Conference seems to be on a whole other plain of duplicity and hard feelings than even the infamous ACC midnight raid on the Big East. At least in that raid, with the exception of the Boston College, there were no expressions of fealty to the league being abandoned before the jump was made.

The realignment dance out west began when the Pac-10(12) decided to explore expansion. Shortly after the expansion discussions began, it became evident to BYU that it would not become a member of the PAC-10(12) and that Utah likely would. At that point, it became clear to the leadership of the WAC that an opportunity was presenting itself to elevate the league's status to becoming the top non automatic qualifying conference in the land, by providing BYU with a spot for all of its teams other than football and working out an arrangement that would allow BYU to go independent in football, which is something that BYU had been exploring for years. To that end, the WAC asked each member for a five year commitment to the league and each member agreed, whether that agreement was in writing and the nature of the agreement is going to be something that a court will likely decide but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Mountain West, now fearful of losing its two best programs, went searching for new members, other than Boise State who had jumped from the WAC before the discussions described above took place. The league asked Utah State but the Aggies declined in solidarity with its WAC brethren and in reliance on its agreement with the other members. It might end up paying a very heavy price for that choice. The WAC then asked both Fresno State and Nevada, who each thought about their commitment to the WAC for about five seconds and jumped to the MWC, probably believing BYU was staying. Now, Utah State, having been totally deceived by Fresno State and Nevada, wants a mulligan on the MWC decision and supposedly they are in discussions.

Yesterday, BYU announced it is leaving the MWC to go independent and will affiliate with the West Coast Conference in other sports. If that doesn't ring a bell, it is the wholly owned subsidiary of Gonzaga basketball. BYU also announced an eight year agreement with ESPN for broadcast of its games across the ESPN family which justifies its decision. In fact, it even has Southern Call at least thinking about taking the same route. Who knows maybe Texas will take its Longhorn Network and go independent as well, although they have all of the advantages and none of the disadvantages so I guess it wouldn't make much sense for them to leave the Big XII (X).

The WAC meanwhile is now scrambling to see if they can keep a league together. The biggest loser in all of this may be Hawai'i who desperately needs a conference to ensure enough games for all of its athletes. It's bad enough trying to schedule football when the visitor receives and extra game to make up the travel costs, but the Olympic sports have similar travel costs (admittedly the teams are smaller) but no way to make up the additional expense. If Hawai'i can't count on a conference to fill out its schedule its participation in Division I could be in jeopardy. The second biggest loser could be the only school that acted honorably in the whole mess, Utah State. If the MWC doesn't extend membership to the Aggies and they are left with the other WAC schools trying to pull together a makeshift conference, they may just have to return to the Big West.

We would like to think of our institutions of higher education as places where our children go to learn the values that help govern our free society. Based on the manner in which these schools conduct their business, the values that are being taught to out kids are the very values that embody the Wall Street mentality that put us in the Great Recession. A college or university athletic department is first and foremost a reflection of, introduction to and manifestation of that particular college or university. If this is the way that these universities wish to portray themselves to the general public, they should not cry too much when legislators cut the budgets of public schools and when public and private schools have a tougher time attracting donations. Few people like to be associated with greed, duplicity and the callous disregard for general ethics. College athletics in particular should be above this.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on September 02, 2010 (boomark / email).