For colleges in states where it is legal for athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness, moving to the SEC gives recruits the potential to earn an even more lucrative paycheck. It’s not fair to say that money doesn’t play a factor in conference realignment why else would Maryland be in the Big 10? But for the Texases and Oklahomas of the world, the financial gain is even bigger. For every team that leaves, their conference gets slightly weaker and no team wants to be left behind. Others, especially the light green contingent of the graphic, plan to exit en masse because of a domino effect. Some schools on the list, such as Southern Miss and Southern Utah, left for conferences of similar status that overlapped geographically. Nashville’s location also makes it a manageable road trip for most schools in the conference. This is especially true after the MVC sent two teams to the NCAA Tournament last year. The Missouri Valley consistently performs a notch better than the Ohio Valley, at least in basketball, leading to more exposure for the Bruins. While nothing else is official, basketball powerhouse Murray State has been rumored to join the MVC as well.īelmont signed off on joining the MVC for the typical reasons: geographic proximity and conference status/financials. Most importantly, Bradley’s very own Missouri Valley Conference will be adding Belmont into the fray, a team that will significantly strengthen the conference in its hallmark of basketball. The graphic doesn’t even account for 10 schools that recently switched conferences before the 2021-22 season. Rather than list all the upcoming changes in conferences, the graphic below summarizes the dizzying amount of institutions moving around in the college sports landscape. The AAC is perhaps at the center of conference realignment talk right now, as many of their members have plans to leave or are rumored to exit shortly. Houston, UCF and Cincinnati all left the American Athletic Conference, which has proven to be more of a purgatory than a highly-respected conference since its inception in 2013. 2 in the AP poll and the other three teams consistently flirt with Top-25 status each year while playing in conferences with less competitive clout in nearly every sport. In football, Cincinnati has finally awoken as a sleeping giant, currently ranked No. It’s no question that the zealous fan bases on both sides of the Red River will tune into their team’s matchups on ESPN, which just invested $3 billion to acquire broadcast rights for SEC football.īefore Big 12 fanatics get too worried about their conference’s future, BYU, Houston, Central Florida and Cincinnati are waiting in the wings to be added in 2025. The move will benefit the conference and both institutions financially, nearly doubling Oklahoma’s and Texas’ income from the Big 12, given the pure football dominance of the SEC. The pastures of the SEC, meanwhile, got a little greener, receiving two established programs in both football and basketball. While the Big 12 has remained in the national spotlight despite the losses of Colorado and Nebraska in 2011 and Missouri and Texas A&M in 2012 (the latter pair also heading to the SEC), the Longhorns and Sooners were arguably the biggest names left in the 25-year-old conference. The announcement that Texas and Oklahoma would leave the Big 12 and join the SEC in 2025 was a Richter Scale-inducing shift in the landscape of college sports. But recently, the amount of institutions switching their allegiances has traditionalists lamenting and yearning for the days where the Big 12 had 12 schools, the Conference-USA was a powerhouse and geographic location was the primary determining factor in aligning conferences. Schools typically come and go every few years, some more notable than others. Something similar is happening in the NCAA right now, as conferences like the SEC and the Sun Belt are planning to alter the landscape of their respective conferences and those from whom they poached from.Ĭonference realignment is no stranger to college sports. Two teams stood in lines on opposite ends, locking hands, chanting “Red Rover, Red Rover, let (insert name) come over” and beckoning participants to run over to their side in hopes of growing their team. I would assume that most of you remember the playground game “Red Rover” from your childhood days.
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