Sportstalk

I would like to talk about college sports for a moment. They are a mess. The NIL created a huge case of have and have nots and the economic disparity between the individual conferences is a joke and makes a complete mockery of amateur athletics. 

There are two national powerhouse conferences economically right now, the SEC and the Big 10. The Big 12 is somewhere beneath them and the mid majors, ACC and Pac 12 many rungs further down.

The television partners have been losing money on college sports and are cutting their losses. The Pac 12 is now talking about a streaming deal with Apple that is not getting much initial traction.  Speaking of the Pac 12, they have now lost USC, UCLA and Colorado and the Arizona schools and Utah could be next. Washington and Oregon are also being wooed.

It sounds like a sinking ship. San Diego State might have dodged a bullet in not being able to join a conference which seems to be imploding and may soon be a Pac 6.

I have been reading about this turn of events and have a theory. I am a basketball guy but it is obvious that football runs the show. And the sad fact is that most people on the West Coast could not give a damn about college football. They would much rather be outside doing something physical themselves than watching college sports.

If you live in Lincoln or Tuscaloosa or Bugwash, Arkansas, football is all they have there for their entertainment or dare I say, clan identity. Well, that and noodling catfish anyway.

But most people on the coasts have other and more diverse interests. And lack of interest is always the one problem that can't be solved, especially at a time when football is found to cause so many long term injuries and CTE problems. 

Perhaps the remnants of the Pac 12 will hook up with the better schools in the Mountain West like Boise St, Fresno St. and SDSU and create a more West Coast oriented conference that would have higher academic standards and less travel time and stress to places like Wyoming and Colorado St.. That would certainly be a better deal for the student athletes. 

Let's face it, money drives the show. And advertisers will not pay networks when it is obvious that most viewers in a region simply don't care.