The big news of the offseason has been conference realignment. While this is mostly football news, it absolutely affects non-revenue sports like gymnastics too. In this week’s roundtable, we’re discussing our thoughts on the realignment news, from whether we like it or not to how we think the conferences should handle having more teams.
Note: California and Stanford were officially voted to join the ACC after the publishing of this article. Should that decision include all sports and not just football and basketball, another mini-roundtable will be published next week with our thoughts about that decision.
What was your initial reaction to the recent conference realignment news for the Big Ten, Big 12, and Pac-12?
Tavia: “Respectfully, what the heck is going on?”
Savanna: “I picked a great day to be laid up with back pain!” immediately followed by “oh boy” and having to remind myself of the protocol for posting breaking news stories. I knew it was a possibility, but to see it actually happening was insane.
Mary Emma: I was surprised but also not surprised at the same time, since a lot of these moves have been rumored for a while. I definitely was surprised by how quickly the Pac-12 fell apart, with so many schools leaving at the same time.
