Baltimore -
Stanford and Berkeley aren’t good enough for them.
As the Pac-12 Conference disintegrates right before our eyes, all part of college athletics' so-called "realignment," Pac-12 stalwarts Stanford and Berkeley have been left out in the cold - at least for the moment. The remaining super-conferences do not seem very interested in recruiting into their fold two of America's most distinguished universities that, by the way, have produced the second and fourth largest number of Olympians in history.
Why exclude these two extraordinary institutions, or at least delay admitting them into, likely, the Atlantic Coast Conference? (Yes, the geographic naming disparities add another level of absurdity to these realignments.) Money. It's always about the Benjamins. That's why the conferences are realigning in the first place. In the case of Stanford and Berkeley, the TV networks don’t think these two academic, research, and athletic powerhouses can generate enough broadcast revenue from football and men’s basketball to satisfy their unyielding rapaciousness. After all, there are two kinds of professional football in this country: the NFL and the hypocrisy of the NCAA.
Once again, television runs college athletics and, too often, college athletics runs higher education. Too many tails have been wagging too many dogs for too many years at our colleges and universities. This chapter provides one of many reasons why U.S. higher education remains in need of a massive rethink and, with it, a clear path for reform, restructuring, and reinvigoration. Well, we can dream, can't we?
