Pigskin Priorities

In the wake of last week’s announced division of the Big Ten conference with the inclusion of Nebraska in 2011, much of the conversation has surrounded the impact such a division will have on the rivalry between Michigan and Ohio State in football and the way in which a conference championship game could create a situation in which these storied programs face each other in two consecutive match-ups. However, what the mainstream discussion has failed to shed light on is the way in which the new Big Ten will impact the competition in the twenty-four other sports in which the Big Ten sponsors competition, both revenue-producing and otherwise.
Amidst all of the discussion surrounding the new face of Big Ten football, the other major revenue-producing sport in collegiate athletics has gone largely by the wayside. Not only does Men’s basketball provide the single highest revenue-producing event for the NCAA, it also is a sport in which teams are sponsored at 346 Division 1 schools, as opposed to just 120 in D1 FBS (lets just face the fact that FCS is a separate division altogether, in reality). With the Final Four being such a pivotal event for the NCAA, there is no doubt Men’s basketball is at least worthy of some consideration when it comes to realignment. Yet, amidst the dueling invitations sent out (reportedly) by both the Big Ten and the Pac-10 (soon to be Pac-12), Kansas was nearly left in a conference devoid of any major basketball foe, a fate detrimental to one of the most storied programs in that sport’s history.
Regardless of the earlier rumors and potential disasters, Big Ten realignment will create a problem for the Big Ten as Nebraska will not only serve as a punching bag for the far more accomplished programs that make up the current conference (save Penn State, another addition late in the game made solely for football revenue), but also as an additional travel burden for schools like Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, and others now faced with the prospect of a 2-3 hour flight for each trip out to Lincoln.
On that note, travel is a problem that will create havoc for several sports now faced with conference competition in Lincoln. Whereas football has the luxury of playing just a single game each week (played on a weekend no less), sports such as Basketball (Mens and Womens), softball, baseball, and others compete multiple times each week and are reliant upon efficient travel in order to maintain their ability to balance athletics with academics completely and effectively. The addition of a yearly trip out to Nebraska is a headache that student-athletes in these sports simply cannot handle.
Although football and its enormous revenue production tend to blind us to the realities of collegiate athletics, lets not lose sight of the fact that these are amateur STUDENT-athletes we are talking about, not professionals with large contracts and a private line to the local NetJets hangar. Football may drive the profitability of modern athletic departments, but sports such as rowing, golf, tennis, and field hockey remain the essence of collegiate athletic competition. These students play for the love of the game and devote a significant amount of time toward pursuing their dream of a conference and/or national title. Adding the burden of travel and other consequences of the new Big Ten setup is simply an exploitation of their hard work and effort in an attempt to put one sport amongst twenty-five in a better position to succeed. This may make financial sense, but in the end it makes little sense in terms of bettering the lives of student athletes across the board. There comes a time when profits must be set aside and other considerations must take hold. This seems, to me at least, to be one of them.