"Doing right by student-athletes" means to me "minimizing the disruption of the education of the students, because that's why they're there."

(02-08-2021 05:09 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  "Doing right by student-athletes" means to me "minimizing the disruption of the education of the students, because that's why they're there."

While this may not be a politically correct point of view, I don't believe education is the reason that many athletes are there (at the school that recruited them). Meeting academic requirements isn't the reason or the goal - it is the price many scholarship athletes have to pay in order to get the best possible training for a career in professional sports. Never mind that a lot of them won't actually get that career. But almost all of them believe they will.

No doubt some athletes are there for the education, and playing their sport for dear old alma mater is the price they have to pay for that. So, which group should we do right by? As someone else posted, athletes are not monolithic. There's no one size fits all.

Here's my FBS (all sports alignment)

Big East: BC, UMASS, UCONN, SYRACUSE, BUFFALO, PITT, PENN ST., VILLANOVA, TEMPLE, RUTGERS, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, WVU, MARSHALL, UVA, VA TECH

MIDWEST CONFERENCE: OSU, CINCINNATI, MICHIGAN, MSU, INDIANA, PURDUE, ND, ILLINOIS, NORTHWESTERN, WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, IOWA, ISU, MIZZOU, NEBRASKA, KANSAS, K-STATE

SWC: TULSA, OKLAHOMA. OSU, TEXAS, TAMU, TEXAS TECH, HOUSTON, RICE, BAYLOR, TCU, SMU, TULANE, LA TECH, LSU, ARKANSAS

SEC: UNC, NCSU, DUKE, WAKE, CLEMSON, SC, UGA, GT, FLORIDA, FSU, THE U, BAMA, AUBURN, OLE MISS, MSU, KENTUCKY, LOUISVILLE, TENNESSEE, VANDERBILT, MEMPHIS

MWC: WYOMING, MONTANA, MONTANA ST., UTAH, USU, BYU, CSU, COLORADO, ARIZONA, ASU, UNM, NM ST.

PACIFIC CONFERENCE: HAWAII, USC, UCLA, STANFORD, CAL, SDSU, SJSU, FRESNO, OREGON, OSU, U-DUB, WSU, IDAHO, IDAHO ST., BOISE ST., UNLV, NEVADA

SBC: CHARLOTTE, LIBERTY, GA ST., GA SOUTHERN, EKU, WKU, FIU, FAU, UCF, USF, ECU, WCU

CUSA: TX ST., UTSA, UTEP, N TX, SO AL, SO MS, ULL, ULM, ARK ST., MTSU, ETSU

ADD TO MAC: EIU, SIU, SE MO, UNI, IN ST., IL ST

Ken: I doubt most athletes in the Olympic sports believe they're going to make a living doing the sport. So I'll say my alignment is mostly for their benefit. And I say this as someone who went to HS with someone who WENT TO THE OLYMPICS (granted she went to Yale). The schools should take responsibility in guiding people away from their delusions of athletic grandeur.

I'm trying to do right by those athletes using their athletic gifts to get an education NOT those using college sports as a way station on their way to the NFL or NBA

(02-08-2021 06:58 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  I'm trying to do right by those athletes using their athletic gifts to get an education NOT those using college sports as a way station on their way to the NFL or NBA

But it's not clear that making geographically more compact conference is 'doing right' by the athletes. As Bearcat said, a two-hour plane ride to a city 800 miles away could be less disruptive than five-hour bus ride to a much closer place. And there's the enjoyment of broadening one's horizons by visiting other regions.

Plus, many conferences are pretty regionally compact as it is. The PAC, SEC, B12, and B1G are all pretty compact.

(02-08-2021 06:55 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Ken: I doubt most athletes in the Olympic sports believe they're going to make a living doing the sport. So I'll say my alignment is mostly for their benefit. And I say this as someone who went to HS with someone who WENT TO THE OLYMPICS (granted she went to Yale). The schools should take responsibility in guiding people away from their delusions of athletic grandeur.

That (bolded) may be true, but this thread is about aligning football conferences, and only at the highest level (not FCS). There's probably no way of knowing what percentage of those football players are there for the education as opposed to the professional opportunity.

I've always wondered why we are only concerned about students who are in college to prepare for some professional careers but not others. What is wrong with wanting to prepare for a career in sports, whether that's playing, coaching or administering?

(02-08-2021 08:36 AM)goofus Wrote:  Why is it in the best interest of FBS athletes to be grouped together with a bunch of inferior athletes from smaller schools?

Athletes want to push themselves to the highest levels. The best want to compete against the best. It is in their best interest for FBS to be split into a Power school level of around 60 schools and then another group of schools around 60 schools.

With that said, the current lineup of 65 P5 schools is not the ideal lineup of P5 schools if you were picking them from scratch. Wash. St, Ore. St,, Baylor, NW, Vandy, Wake Forest. should be demoted. BYU can get promoted. Then split the remaining P60 into 6 geographic conferences of 10 schools each.

Baylor? Have you checked basketball rankings the past few years? Football has been mostly excellent as well.

(02-08-2021 06:58 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  I'm trying to do right by those athletes using their athletic gifts to get an education NOT those using college sports as a way station on their way to the NFL or NBA

Yet you would put football players at Vanderbilt in the same conference as Alabama. It seems to me that aligning athletes into P5 and G5 conferences is a start to separating those using sports as a way station from those seeking an education.

Ken: preparing people for white collar jobs is the mission of colleges. So I have NO issue preparing future coaches and ADs.