AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
College football has a geography problem. Last we check, Cal and Stanford are in northern California. So how come they're in the Atlantic Coast Conference? And why are the Oregon Ducks in the Big 10 with the Michigan Wolverines? And for that matter, why does the Big 10 now have 18 teams? So many questions. And Holly Anderson, co-host of the Shutdown Full cast is here with some answers. Welcome to the program.
HOLLY ANDERSON: Hi. Thank you for having me.
RASCOE: Does the Pac-12, a conference that produced mega football stars like John Elway and Tony Gonzalez - does it actually still exist?
ANDERSON: It technically still exists on paper. It has two teams in it. It has Washington State, and it has Oregon State. But one of the more obnoxious things about the conference realignment that has brought about, as you said, Oregon and Michigan together as bedfellows, is that during the Olympics, when Stanford swimmers, for example, would place highly in their races, the Atlantic Coast Conference social media team would put out big trumpeting announcements. Look at all these ACC athletes - Stanford, longtime stalwart members of the Atlantic Coast.
RASCOE: OK (laughter).
ANDERSON: It's stupider than you think, is what I'm trying to say.
RASCOE: So what happened with the Pac-12? Why has there been this exodus? And why are all these West Coast powerhouses now playing in the Midwest and the East?
ANDERSON: The big top-line answer here is TV money. When there is a documentary made about the eventual demise of the Pac-10, or excuse me, Pac-8, Pac-10, Pac-12, Pac-16, and now the Pac-2, it's going to be lengthy, and it's probably going to start right around the time they hired a commissioner named Larry Scott, who got way out over his skis and tried to do things like, Oh, spend lots of money on real estate in San Francisco, and let's expand the conference to China. And he kind of forgot to watch the fires at home. And now all the large market teams, all the big-name teams are now in one of two conferences because those conferences have the biggest TV deals. Like so many other industries in America, they are all getting hoovered up into what's basically now conglomerates.
RASCOE: Is it fair to say, as you seem to be saying, that college football only has these two super big and super powerful conferences, and that's the SEC and the Big 10?
ANDERSON: Right now, from an orbital standpoint, it looks that way. And that's a huge shame because the thing that has always made college football special, that has set it apart from, you know, the more naturally homogeneous NFL, is its regionality, its regional specificities. And, you know, as smaller schools around the country get pushed further and further out of the limelight, because they don't have these huge TV deals with ESPN, with NBC, with Fox, we're going to lose national appreciation of these teams, and these teams are treasures.
RASCOE: I would imagine that fans and college alums are a bit upset or maybe a bit furious about their traditions now kind of falling by the wayside.
ANDERSON: It depends on which side of the fence you landed on. You know, there were historical rivalries that have been preserved within these conference moves. You know, if you're a legacy member of one of these conferences, you know, Alabama and Auburn are always going to play. Ohio State and Michigan are always going to play. But if you're a Tier 2 team, say, in one of these big conferences or below, your rivalries are in danger. The schools you play every year are no longer going to be a part of your lives. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, which share a state...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
ANDERSON: ...Are in-state rivals, are now split up because Oklahoma's in the SEC, and Oklahoma State's in the Big 12. This sounds melodramatic, but again, this is what the sport was founded on. Yeah, this is what the sport is built on, is these little pockets of very specific types of celebrations and rituals around the country that are all just getting kind of machined over now.
RASCOE: There's also the idea that, even though we're talking about college football, these changes in conferences affect all of a university's sports teams. So you have, like the Oregon gymnastics teams flying to Rutgers on a Tuesday night. That's tough for students, right?
ANDERSON: Excuse me. Those are student athletes.
RASCOE: Student athletes, yes.
ANDERSON: Thank you for labeling them as students. That part seems to...
RASCOE: (Laughter).
ANDERSON: ...That part seems to come last. These conferences have been - some of them have been geographically stretched for a minute. But having some of these longitudinal rivalries convert into latitudinal rivalries - it's really just kind of highlighted how many things we just kind of smile and ignore when we're building up this apparatus into more and more of a money-making machine.
RASCOE: Holly Anderson is the co-host of the Shutdown Fullcast. Thank you so much for joining us.
ANDERSON: Hey, thanks, Ayesha. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
