By Tiffany Demiris and Denny Wilkins

In December 2023, the University of Washington nipped the University of Oregon to emerge as the Pac-12 conference football champions.

But neither Washington nor Oregon will again have the chance to be Pac-12 champs. That’s because both teams are departing the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. And they won’t be alone — the University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Southern California will leave the Pac-12, too, for the Big Ten.

Conference realignment has shredded the once nationally competitive Pac-12. The University of Arizona, Arizona State University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Utah have bid adieu to the Pac-12. They’ll join the Big 12.

The University of California at Berkeley and Stanford University will join the Atlantic Coast Conference.

In December 2024, only Washington State University and Oregon State University will be left to vie for Pac-12 titles.

Realignment has taken its toll on the Pac-12 — and on the finances of the institutions who have left as well as those who remain. So, too, will student-athletes feel the consequences.

Although conference realignment is a hotly debated topic in the 2020s, it is certainly nothing new. Considering that membership in a league or conference is one of the most valuable assets a sport property has, it is no surprise that college and university athletic departments are constantly evaluating what conference is the best fit. Originally, these decisions were made based on geographic, academic, and mission similarities. However, these days decisions are almost always based on monetary factors. These decisions often leave student athletes to bear the resulting consequences in terms of extended travel and thus missed class time.

Conference realignment, encouraged by large multi-billion-dollar television contracts, has resulted in conferences such as the American Athletic Conference and the Pac-12 losing members to the Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC. Decisions made for football dollars, which sustain non-revenue generating sports, have consequences that reverberate back to student-athletes in other sports. 

In a 2021 study in the Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education, football players within the Big Ten described impacts on academic performance stemming from extensive travel. Athletes spent more time away from the classroom and felt they had less time to complete homework and assignments. Further, study participants noted an inability to participate in other extracurricular activities and join major-specific organizations. Most importantly, participants reported a high level of fatigue from traveling to and from competitions that left them with less energy to complete assignments, study, or attend professors’ office hours.

Academic performance was not the only area of decline. Study participants discussed the toll extensive travel can take on athletic performance as well. Some student-athletes said long bus rides often led to stiff, tired, or heavy feelings in the legs. Further, feelings of jet lag or other types of fatigue were heightened when athletes traveled to different time zones. Those occur significantly more often for schools playing against Pacific schools newly admitted to the Big Ten and Big 12.

Sage Ennis, a former football player at Clemson University in the Atlantic Coast Conference and a current graduate student at the University of Virginia, reported that academic and athletic performance were not much of an issue when traveling within the localized region. But when traveling further away he said “it can become more difficult to maintain academic and athletic excellence on the field.” Especially when traveling to different time zones, he said “jet lag, physical fatigue, and mental irritation” are more likely to occur due to disrupted sleep schedules. Considering Clemson will now be playing the likes of UCLA and USC, this will certainly become a future issue for student-athletes within the ACC. 

Impacts can be seen beyond football. A Clemson women’s softball player, who wished to remain anonymous as she is still in a graduate program, said, “The bus rides are rough, sitting in one bus for hours at a time is no joke. Bus is definitely the most uncomfortable way to travel, and I would say it mildly impacts performance due to lack of activity but for a short period of time.” She said that out of the classroom during the week, compared to football which mostly competes on the weekends, was difficult, especially when traveling to different time zones when deadlines can easily be missed. 

In terms of general student life, Sage echoed the findings of the study, highlighting that traveling for sports with weekday competitions strips the student-athlete of their ‘student’ title” when they cannot participate in general college life.

Both students said conference realignment was much more disadvantageous to sports other than football, especially baseball and softball, which have significantly more competitions in a season. Golf is another sport that is drastically impacted, as golf courses are not available for competition on the weekends, when they are reserved for paying clientele.

Both students, and many others, find that these monetarily driven decisions have a negative effect on student-athletes and are disheartened by these choices made by individuals who do not need to endure the consequences of their actions. One student said, “It is a shame that the NCAA cares more about revenue, sponsorships, and media deals than they care about the health of their athletes.” 

Tiffany Demiris is an assistant professor of sports management at St. Bonaventure University. Denny Wilkins is a professor in the university’s Jandoli School of Communication.

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Visit our Hybrid Journalism Page to learn more about the project and view other articles. To learn more about this article, click below to watch a conversation with one of the authors, hosted by Cassidey Kavathas.

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