A Jersey Guy: Conspiracy of Dunces
The so called "alliance'' among the Pac-12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference to form a united front is not only laughable, it's a flim-flam arrangement that Robert Preston would have had trouble selling in River City.
All of this was prompted by the announcement last week that Oklahoma and Texas were leaving the Big 12 and joining the Southeastern Conference
Let's cut to the chase here.
The SEC didn't initiate the move.
It didn't have to do anything.
It is a 14 team super conference in football, led by defending national champion Alabama, generating billions of dollars in revenue with a great success rate.
The gold-standard for big time college football.
One of my favorite quotes came from former Sugar Bowl executive director Paul Hoolahan who was asked if he worried about the latest series of changes in the bowl system.
"I don''t have to worry,'' said Hoolahan, knowing the SEC and the Sugar Bowl were joined at the hip. ""I have Secretariat (Alabama).'
Texas and OU called the SEC and the SEC simply said, "Yes, we can work this out.''
Yet, there is this sense of moral outrage from the Pac-12, Big Ten, and ACC about a perceived move of "Southern Aggression'' made by the SEC.
Interesting since several sources confirm that the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 each made overtures to Texas and were each rejected.
So the Little 3 played the educational card, which is laughable since they again used the term "student-athlete'' in describing the move which will create a non-conference scheduling alliance and very little else.
"“Student-athletes have been and will remain the focal point of the Big Ten, ACC and PAC-12 Conferences” said Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. “Today, through this alliance, we furthered our commitment to our student-athletes by prioritizing our academics and athletics value systems. We are creating opportunities for student-athletes to have elite competition and are taking the necessary steps to shape and stabilize the future of college athletics.”
""Pure BS,'' said one long time college administrator. ""I knew it was BS, when I read that 41 presidents agreed. Forty-one presidents couldn't agree that today is Thursday.''
Academic standards and well-fare of the players?
This from the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 which endured one of the biggest cases of academic fraud (ACC-North Carolina), the ACC was also the first conference to gut another conference in the expansion movement.
The Big Ten is stained by cases of sexual abuse and scandal (Penn State and Michigan State)
The Pac-12 sold its soul to the television devil by forcing its "student-athletes'' to start one of its conference games (Arizona State at USC) at 9 a.m. local time.
Spare me the righteous indignation and the academic arrogance.
Each league was not aggressive enough or run by leadership which was able to put the deal together.
This was and continues to be about the money.
And EVERYONE is following the same path.