The cost of college conference realignment: ‘We are student-athletes, but we’re also human’
For the past year, student-athletes have been faced with an unsettling question: How much are their lives about to change?
For the past year, student-athletes have been faced with an unsettling question: How much are their lives about to change?
Last summer, 15 schools in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision realigned conferences, chasing lucrative media deals in what led to the demise of the Pac-12. Seemingly overnight, the 109-year-old conference of a dozen schools, with decades of rivalries, became a conference of only two. For some student-athletes, the switch meant their schools would play games across the country, leading to longer travel schedules, increased time away from campus and a more rigorous schedule. Athletes saw the move as a change they hadn’t entirely signed up for.
“The balance of practice, travel, school and having a social life is already hard enough,” Morgan Scott, a former member of the University of Oregon softball team, posted on X.
“Why add even more stress?”
Shannon Cunningham, a former member of the Arizona State University softball team, said the conference change shattered her dream of playing in the Pac-12.
Rating: 5