{"id":13170,"date":"2023-08-09T23:19:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T04:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=13170"},"modified":"2023-08-09T23:19:52","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T04:19:52","slug":"chip-kelly-suggests-college-football-become-independent-after-latest-realignment-shakeups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/chip-kelly-suggests-college-football-become-independent-after-latest-realignment-shakeups\/","title":{"rendered":"Chip Kelly suggests college football become independent after latest realignment shakeups"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest round of conference realignment dramatically changed the college athletics landscape. The Big Ten will soon stretch to both coasts<\/a><\/strong> and the Big 12 will find itself in four time zones<\/a><\/strong> as the Pac-12 saw eight total teams leave.<\/p>\n

Football was the focal point of the changes \u2014 not to mention media rights deals<\/a><\/strong>, of course. Multiple Olympic sport athletes in the Pac-12 voiced their concerns<\/a> about travel and mental health considering teams could feasibly go from Eugene, Oregon to Pescataway, New Jersey. Sports such as baseball and softball play over multiple days, which led to the worries about how all the traveling would impact student-athletes. <\/p>\n

Mizzou<\/a><\/strong> head coach Eli Drinkwitz<\/a><\/strong> previously spoke out<\/a><\/strong> about how Olympic sports would be affected, and Ole Miss<\/a><\/strong> coach Lane Kiffin<\/a><\/strong> offered a ringing endorsement<\/a><\/strong> of his remarks. NCAA president Charlie Baker<\/strong> also shared concerns about the \u201chighly disruptive<\/a><\/strong>\u201d realignment in a statement to On3\u2019s Pete Nakos<\/a><\/strong>. But on Tuesday, UCLA<\/a><\/strong> coach Chip Kelly<\/a><\/strong> offered a potentially groundbreaking suggestion \u2014 and he used Notre Dame<\/a><\/strong> as the prime example.<\/p>\n

\u201cNotre Dame is an independent in football, but they\u2019re in a conference for everything else. Why aren\u2019t we all independent for football?\u201d Kelly said<\/a>. \u201cTake the 64 teams in Power 5, make that one division. Take the 64 teams in Group of 5, make that another division. We play for a championship, they play for a championship, no one else gets affected. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur sport\u2019s different than everybody else. We only play once a week. Travel\u2019s not a big deal for football, but it is a big deal for other sports. That\u2019s my theory, but I don\u2019t have a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Big Ten is going to increase from 18 teams in 2024 as four Pac-12 programs \u2014 UCLA, Oregon<\/a><\/strong>, Washington<\/a><\/strong> and USC<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 all make the move to bring the league to the West Coast. Four other teams are heading to the Big 12 as Arizona<\/a><\/strong>, Arizona State<\/a><\/strong>, Colorado<\/a><\/strong> and Utah<\/a><\/strong> leave the Pac-12 that year. That left the so-called \u201cPac-4\u201d of Cal<\/a><\/strong>, Oregon State<\/a><\/strong>, Stanford<\/a><\/strong> and Washington State<\/a><\/strong> left behind to figure out what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n

The aftershocks of the realignment moves are still being felt. Multiple reports indicate the ACC could be looking into<\/a><\/strong> Cal or Stanford, along with potentially SMU<\/a><\/strong>, as it weighs expansion<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s possible the dominoes aren\u2019t done falling, and football is at the forefront of the conversation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Drinkwitz \u2014 whose comments quickly went viral \u2014 sounded off about what could lie ahead for athletes in Olympic sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right, I\u2019m gonna say it,\u201d Drinkwitz said after a lengthy pause. \u201cI thought the portal was closed. Oh, that\u2019s just for the student athletes. The adults in the room get to do whatever they want, apparently. My question is: Did we count the cost? I\u2019m not talking about a financial cost. I\u2019m talking about did we count the cost for the student athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student athletes?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a football decision they based off football. But what about softball and baseball who have to travel cross country? Do we ask about the cost of them? Do we know what the No. 1 indicator or symptom or cause of mental health is? It\u2019s lack of rest and sleep. Traveling in those baseball, softball games, those people, they travel commercial. They get done playing at 4, they gotta go to the airport, they come back. It\u2019s 3 or 4 in the morning (and) they gotta go to class? I mean, did we ask any of them?\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Chip Kelly suggests college football become independent after latest realignment shakeups<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest round of conference realignment dramatically changed the college athletics landscape. The Big Ten…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}