As the younger generations face the wrath of confusion emanating from pseudo-intellectuals seeking widespread conformity through embracing neutral shades of gray over a unique rainbow color pallet except in extreme cases ingenuity and the competitive spirit dissipates into the ether of ambiguity. Recent stunning developments affecting the near future of NCAA sports and have arrived at a defining period spanning troubled elements of the nation’s past, with legal and procedural checks and balances repairing the damage of ten years of toxic policy fueled by the prevalence of social media and the arrival of the information age.
The chorus of the band Genesis within the hit song “Land of Confusion” informing listeners that “there is not enough love to go around,” represented by prophetic lyrics through the vocal talents performed by the legendary Phil Collins in the 1980’s. The tune paints a disturbing picture where simply being a woman or man is simply not good enough anymore, and the devices environment threatens the beneficial gains of the historic Title IX legislation promoting equity in scholarship athletics, as reckless activism has its sights set on grouping the politics of blue and red states through amateur sports in pursuing the opposite of the greater good in codifying human nature for the sake of special interests.
With the announcement by the brass of left coast sports powerhouses UCLA and USC moving the Big-10 conference to compete against institutions in middle American and the Eastern seaboard, the trapdoor in a Las Vegas brothel has been left gapingly ajar for individuals and groups with a vile ulterior motive to inflict damage to the basic framework of the nation. USC versus Ohio in regular season football… Indiana versus UCLA in a home and away basketball series… at least the possible matchups are intriguing.
Even in ignoring the absence of unsustainable travel logistics and Green New Deal supporter’s indifference to three to five hour flights and in abusing the convenient tactic to play fringe politics to forward an agenda, the non-linear campus and legislative culture dictated by geography are not being addressed. The formation of superconferences at the very best allows student athletes to optimize their brand and at the worst widens the gap between reasonable citizens and those prone to visceral snap judgements.
In deviating from the oblivious sanctimony of narcissists who regularly convolute opinion with right, wrong and truth, the metamorphosis of the student-athlete into Bo Jackson-light is only exacerbated by the coordinated figure skating tandem of superconferences and behemoth television networks. In the wake of the courts ruling in favor of Ed O’Bannon and the inception of names, image and likeness (NIL), it is no longer enough to earn a scholarship and a free education as a member of the UCLA women’s volleyball team. The Hollywood script must align to the reprehensible instant gratification characteristic of the temperamental information age as infants fresh out of the womb possess the innate instinct of entitlement and self-worth, prompting Silicon Valley to tinker with social media apps catering to unborn children. (Why wait to instill indoctrination until the formative years?) Even though athletic department revenue is generated through football television contracts and in some cases men’s basketball, everybody wants a piece of the pie in claiming their worth and declaring their gender.
As major universities gravitate towards vast conglomerates of infrastructure and talent, the abbreviated television networks are ready to mold the putty of chaos into a streamlined sculpture annually generating billions of dollars. While stringent broadcast schedules have transformed the traditional noon Saturday college football start times into sporadic events around the clock, the influence of broadcast entities our now poised to morph the very fabric of the game’s lifecycle throughout the entire year and in all phases of operation. The corporate media wants consolidation despite the perpetual headaches and the corrosive editing of history.
One aspect of expansionism that is being grossly overlooked other than the logistical nightmares of moving an entire football operation across three times zones on an annual basis, is the irregular political dynamics. It is common knowledge that California is a national trendsetter for aggressively progressive ideology, a reality that does not handshake with the whole premise of middle America. The faulty and fickle memory of society has apparently already forgotten that public health protocol within the state needlessly delayed football for two months during the first year of Covid-19, as the health department drafted impossible policy which prevented teams from holding scrimmages. This Nancy Pelosi nanny state mentality does not align with the lawmakers of a Nebraska, Wisconsin, or Ohio, where extremism does not exist and is not tolerated. While the Los Angeles schools encapsulate the size and importance of the LA media market, the radical politics of a city, county and state level do not justify realignment, and present a potential disaster, as the Left coast is the gift that keeps on misgiving.
UCLA and USC bailing will almost certainly result in a chain reaction, where the entire ecosystem of NCAA sporting hierarchy will be turned upside down in a daring experiment where the bulk of craziness is still two years away.
While the landscape of college athletics has become fluidic, due to consequences of the NIL, the broadcast industry and overzealous athletic departments, alumni and fans, the driving force behind the self-driving mechanism, as usual are left with no voice in witnessing the painful death of amateur sports.
