LOS ANGELES — College athletics are changing, and the Pac-12 Conference is feeling the effects.
At the league’s media day Friday, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham referred to the conference as the “Pac-10” four times. It didn’t seem like an accident. USC and UCLA are joining the Big Ten in 2024, the latest power move by big-name schools seeking greater media revenue.
The event took place at the Novo Theater at the L.A. LIVE entertainment complex, prompting all manner of mockery from the gathered punditry. L.A. LIVE? More like L.A. DEAD. Or L.A. LEAVE.
Commissioner George Kliavkoff struck a more serious tone. In the midst of trying to save his conference, Kliavkoff seemed genuinely concerned about the future of college sports.
“I believe that we have collectively lost sight of the student-athlete,” Kliavkoff said. “We need to recalibrate our approach to ensure our filter for any decision is what is in their best interest.
“Increased revenue can help us support our student-athletes, but a singular focus on money will certainly cause more harm than good.
“We are at a critical juncture, and the decisions we make in the near future will determine whether we head towards a world in which a small handful of conferences are playing professional sports at the expense of tens of thousands of academic opportunities, or we use the bounty of resources available to continue to develop future leaders.”
Conference realignment and expansion aren’t the only seismic changes. NIL opportunities are dictating athletes’ decisions about which school they should attend. The NCAA transfer portal and the advent of “free” transfers — i.e., immediate eligibility — have given them more options and flexibility.
Coaches expressed concern about some of the developments. Many also stressed acceptance and adaptability.
Here’s what 11 coaches had to say about the direction college athletics are headed:
Conference realignment/expansion
Utah’s Kyle Whittingham: “The future is really anybody’s best guess. Super conferences are on their way, already starting to form. A full-blown playoff — 12-, 16-team playoff — that’s around the corner as well. The landscape is changing rapidly. I don’t think we’re ever going to see anything close to what we’ve been used to the last 50 years in college football. It’s all changing. You add NIL on top of that, it’s a completely different world. But it is the world we’re in right now, so you got to adapt.”
Oregon’s Dan Lanning: “It seems to be ever-changing, doesn’t it? I’ve been asked a couple times what it’s like being a first-year head coach in this environment. It’s probably pretty similar to being a 15-year head coach because it’s different. It continues to change.
“You always have to pay attention. There’s usually a headline when you wake up in the morning.”
Washington’s Kalen DeBoer: “In today’s world of college athletics, college football in particular, you expect the unexpected. Everyone was a little bit surprised, right? But you also know and expect that things are going to change and they’re going to continue to change. You take it in stride and you make the most of the situation we’re in. I feel like we’re in a great spot at U-Dub, part of a conference that has a lot of things still going for it.”
ASU’s Herm Edwards: “I can remember growing up on the West Coast, and it was the Big Five, Big Six. Then it became the Pac-8, a conference that I played in at Cal. In ’78, it switched over and became the Pac-10. Lo and behold, in 2011, whatever it was, it became the Pac-12.
“Sometimes we sit here and we just (acknowledge) the era that we’re in; that’s what we remember. Well, it’s changing.
“Change is about growth sometimes, and opportunity. According to what and how you believe it and how you sit, it affects people different. I look at myself. Without change, I’m not sitting here. So I don’t look at it like, ‘Well, this is going to mess up college football.’ It’s going to change college football, no doubt about that.
“Everyone is trying to figure out: What is it going to look like? We don’t know. It might change again next week. No one knows. But eventually it will change.
“Someone else will be sitting at this table. There will be new guys writing stories. They’ll be talking about, ‘Hey, you remember what happened back in 2022?’ That’s life. That’s just how it works. We can hold onto whatever we want to hold onto. That’s over with. You can’t hold onto it. You got to adjust. Some will like it, some will not.”
Washington State’s Jake Dickert: “Everybody wants progress, but nobody wants change. I talk to our guys all the time: Change is inevitable in life. College football is changing at a very, very fast rate. But I know, because we have solution-based leaders in the Pac-12 ... the Pac-12 is going to be here and is going to be thriving for a very long time.”
Cal’s Justin Wilcox: “Not much surprises me. Was it big news? Yeah, it was. ... But I understand that especially for the traditionalist in all of us, when things like that happen, it feels a bit uneasy.”
UCLA’s Chip Kelly: “I don’t know if expansion is done. I don’t have a crystal ball. Last year at this point in time, we all sat in here as a conference of 12 and talked about what Texas and Oklahoma were doing going to the SEC. Now we sit here talking as a conference of 12/10. I don’t know what the next domino is to drop.
“One thing I do know: Everybody complains about the game, where it’s headed, but I think the product on the field is as good as it’s ever been. The coaching that’s going on in college football right now is second to none.”
UCLA coach Chip Kelly smiles during media day. The Bruins — and presumably Kelly, who is under contract for another four seasons — will join the Big Ten Conference starting in 2024.
USC/UCLA departures
Whittingham: “Surprised, but not surprised. Nothing can really surprise you in college football right now. There’s so much movement and things that have happened through the years. There’s going to be a great deal more change, in my opinion. We’ll just have to wait and see when all the dust settles where we’re at. It’s not settled yet. There’s a lot of dust to come.”
Colorado’s Karl Dorrell (a former UCLA coach and player): “Shocking was my first impression. ... But you got to also recognize that when I came back to Colorado in 2020, COVID hit three weeks later. A lot of things have been challenging and changing for me every year. It was like one more thing. What’s one more thing?
“What does that look like moving forward? We all don’t know. But I wish them the very best. Obviously, that’s a school that has made me into who I am today as a coach. I don’t wish them any ill will.”
Kelly: “It’s an awkward situation for everybody. I’ve had a great experience in this league. I owe my life to the Pac-12. I appreciate what this league has done. But I was in this league, and it started as the Pac-10. Early in my career, we added Colorado and Utah. We were all excited about adding people.
“It is what it is. It’s realignment. It’s going on. Governed by television. Those are things out of my control. I didn’t have a vote. I didn’t have a say. I’m going to coach my guys.”
USC’s Lincoln Riley: “There’s some obvious benefits right off the top. Playing in some of the major, biggest, most influential media markets not only in the country but in the world. One thing that I don’t feel like has been discussed that much is, forever and ever, one of the most-watched, impactful games in college football has been the Rose Bowl. You think about some of the epic matchups that have happened in the Rose Bowl. Now you’re going to have several of those happening each year, albeit in different venues. It’s going to create some cool and intriguing matchups that will grab attention all over the country.
“The financial impact is significant. The ability to take that and put it back into facilities, to put it back into services for your players, to mental health, to development, to anything that’s going to benefit the program, it’s a big deal. The TV slots are a big deal. USC has always been a national brand, but it opens up a recruiting base that’s maybe different than ever before in the school’s history.”
Lincoln Riley is in his first season at USC following a stellar career at Oklahoma.
Student-athlete experience
DeBoer: “NIL is providing resources to these guys. Continue to do it the right way. This is a positive for them, and it helps their experience. Being able to transfer in the portal, as much as I understand the issues with a few of the things that have happened, it’s also, again, helping them in their limited years to play this sport. It’s giving them a chance ... to go make the most of their educational experience and their football time.”
Arizona’s Jedd Fisch: “97-98% of these college football players are not going to play ... NFL football. So if we make it just a pro league, they’re gonna just play football and ... be done and have no college degree? That doesn’t seem to make sense.
“When I talked to our players about being the 33rd NFL team, what I’ve talked to them about is, if you train like a pro ... if you understand discipline matters and work ethic, if you understand that doing everything right on and off the field matters, that’s what you’re gonna get when you walk onto an NFL field. That’s also going to make you successful in life.”
Stanford’s David Shaw: “Some people take this as a negative, and I will stand up against that: I want college athletics to be college athletics. I don’t want it to be professional athletics.
“Now, I want our young people to take advantage of their opportunities through NIL. There are a lot of different things that we can continue to do to help our student-athletes
“At the same time, I don’t want to hire and fire college athletes. I want them to be students. They’re 18, 19, 20 years old. I want to them to enjoy college. I don’t want them to be professionals. I don’t want that to change, that experience to change. I want them to be on our campus, be college kids, stay up playing video games at 2 in the morning in the dorms. I want them to have those experiences and then leave us and become professionals.”
Dickert: “There’s a lot of parameters that we need to continue to keep in place, to preserve what we all love about the traditions and the rivalries of college football. It’s always going to be with a student-athlete center to it.
“College football, the pureness of the game, will always be there. We all have to fight to preserve that.”
Kelly: “The best thing about college football is the players. We have some tremendous players. It’s incumbent upon the people in charge to work out all the differences that are going on at a higher level, because the resource we have right now, which is our players, should be the attention.
“They’re special. We should be talking about them. We should be talking about the season that all of them are going to have here in 2022 and not talking about expansion.”
