In big-time college athletics, cash is king and tradition is just a smokescreen.
That Kansas and Nebraska have shared a conference for generations matters not. That the Jayhawks and Tigers share the second-longest football rivalry is of lower priority than revenue streams.
A little more than a week ago, few of us could have foreseen the speculation over conference realignment and expansion that has run rampant. Last week we listened to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little weigh in on Athletics Director Lew Perkins and the ticket scandal that had previously dominated headlines in Lawrence. Now we listen to the chancellor urge Nebraska and Missouri not to bolt from the Big 12.
Today we also face the prospect of a collegiate sports landscape the likes of which we’ve never known.
We can devise any number of scenarios to pass the time until something of substance breaks. We can assume Nebraska and Missouri land in the Big Ten, that the Pac-10 scoops up the Big 12 South and that Kansas and Kansas State must search for a new home.
It is also not unreasonable to assume that nothing will happen. That all holds constant or, at the very least, the Big 12 replenishes after a hypothetical loss of one or two to the Big Ten.
In any scenario, Kansas needs to look out for its own best interests. If one or multiple raids on the Big 12 leave Kansas stranded, it can be sure that its basketball program will mean something to someone. Options exist from the Mountain West to the Big East, Conference USA or, in a reach, even the Big Ten.
If nothing happens and the Big 12 exists more or less as it does now, the University and Athletics must remember how close it all came to falling apart. It would be unwise to forget how the birthplace of basketball found itself searching for suitors in most all scenarios thrown about.
More questions still exist than answers, but perhaps this episode can at least be used as an opportunity for the University to review its priorities. The University must continue to seek and demand transparency in the ongoing ticket scandal. It must do all it can to ensure that the vast majority of students here that do not participate in NCAA sports receive a strong educational value for their money.
I agree with what the chancellor said when she told The Associated Press Monday that “Athletics are important to a university. Athletics helps develop friendships and allegiances to the university.” We don’t have to lose athletics if the entire landscape of the NCAA is shaken. We don’t have to get lost in the greed and corruption that shapes big time college sports, either.
It is important that the University consider all options when deliberating on the best path forward from all this. The option that makes our diplomas most valuable to potential employers is the best one. If that means privatizing the school, so be it.
It is clear that those involved in reshuffling or expanding conferences have only their best interests in mind. Such drastic change will be easier to stomach knowing that our own school has our own interests in mind too.