This past week The Big Ten Conference announced they officially added Oregon and Washington, bringing the total school count to 18 after USC and UCLA made the same decision rather suddenly. and if you think that these decisions were made with any consideration other than money, you are a fool. The current TV contract is set around $1 BILLION PER YEAR! The next will be bigger, for sure.

The Big Ten added Rutgers in 2012, while I still worked at Ohio State ( sorry, THE Ohio State University). I know first hand that was a purely TV driven deal as well. By adding the Scarlet Knights, all of the NJ and NY viewership was added. A combined 28.4 million lived there at that time (usafacts.org). Now factor in that Oregon had 4.2 million, Washington 7.7, and L.A. county alone had 9.8 million people in 2021 (39 for all of California).

But hey, that’s capitalism, right?

A Voice for Good

Thankfully out of all this, someone was willing to express concern for those that get the least for the most work. I hope that his willingness to be outspoken encourages others to do the same.

The answer to Coach Drinkwitz’s question is almost certainly a resounding “no”. I don’t think a single moment was spent in concern for student athletes health and wellness. Sure someone probably brought up the long flights across country, and time zone changes, and MAYBE the cost of the travel. But academics? Physical and mental stress? Remember, I used to work in that world. They pretty much said as much.

The only people truly concerned with student athlete wellbeing are not making conference alignment and TV deals. The non-football, non-basketball coaches. The Medical and strength/conditioning staff. The academic advisors and career counselors. The Student Athlete Advisory Council for crying out loud! Not a single seat at the table for any of them.

Ok, rant over.

-J