The landscape of college sports was drastically turned on its head as five teams decided to leave the Pac-12 for better opportunities in bigger conferences. Andy Staples discussed the situation on the upcoming edition of the Awful Announcing Podcast, saying that there “is no logic” to the realignment going on in college sports.
Only four teams (Cal, Oregon State, Stanford, and Oregon State) remain in the Pac-12 after the mass exodus from the conference. And that certainly leaves a ton of doubt about where they will ultimately end up.
Staples detailed to AA’s Brandon Contes that to the average college football fan, the realignment that has happened in the Pac-12, Big XII, Big Ten, and in college sports as a whole over the past two years is certainly unusual, to say the least.
“I think if you look at everything that has happened over the past two years, logic is sort of out the window. Trying to explain this to people who live normal lives and aren’t knee-deep in this stuff all the time. That is why you realize they lose supreme court cases 9-0. It is such a weird world. If you try to explain it to a normal person, like ‘what the h*** are you talking about?'”
Staples is dead on with his assessment, as it will likely be a huge adjustment for most fans to see a team like Oregon being in the Big Ten.
As for the rest of the teams remaining in the Pac-12, Staples added that he believes the “most logical” fit for them would be in the Mountain West Conference.
He also detailed that a move to the Big Ten is unlikely for those teams due to their media rights deal with Fox and the influence that comes with that.
“The initial report was that they (Big Ten) were looking at Oregon, Washington, Cal, and Stanford. You notice Cal and Stanford fell out of that pretty quick. Fox has an outside influence on what the Big Ten does. and Fox probably said ‘Hey, we are fine with you taking in Oregon and Washington on pennies on the dollar because we can get value out of that. I’m not so sure we get value out of Cal and Stanford.'”
The full episode with Andy Staples will be available Friday, you can find the Awful Announcing Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
