Column: Realignment threatens to ruin experience for so many

We’re now a few a few days removed from Defection Friday ™ and what most certainly was the death knell for the PAC-12, or at least that conference as we know it.

And, sure, for those of us on the eastern seaboard and especially those of us with a vested interest in UVa sports, it might seem like the time zones render this development from mattering but so much.

Yet there’s little doubt that the inevitable march of time will prove that viewpoint misguided at best.

If they were in a position to hear the latest at that point, most folks went to work the other day thinking the PAC-12 was about to pull an ACC and go Grant of Rights. Yet, by the time dusk fell on the aforementioned Pacific, the league was down to just four teams including arguably the most successful athletic department in the nation.

It wasn’t the first example of the changing landscape of college sports. And it assuredly won’t be the last.

A column on a subject such as this is a dime a dozen in the Realignment Era, just as one discussing the ills/positives/whatevers of Name, Image, and Likeness can be, too.

But that isn’t this column; I’ve got no interest in trying to scare for clicks. Nor am I trying to nostalgia you to the point of anger.

No, this is a column about how you can’t get the back 40 back and the only way forward sometimes is through, especially for the players who had no choice in the matter. It's a hope that fans won't give up despite so many growing reasons to do so.

I used to work in newspapers and I can tell you that once the classifieds didn’t necessarily have to be in there, the horse was out of the barn on the concept of local news. There’s a reason for that, of course: The internet changed things aplenty.

It did the same thing for shopping, right? But here we are, in a connected world where two-day shipping is no longer a luxury but considered table stakes. Most companies try and fail to keep up with that, to say nothing of the mom and pop operations.

The college sports landscape shifted when technology and our interconnectivity allowed the airing of games in new places, when HD gave us better angles at home than we had in the stadiums we grew up loving to frequent.

In all cases, the realities come slow…except when they don't.

Realignment feels on the verge of something big because it is; who knows what the next few months or weeks or—as the PAC-12 folks know—days and hours might mean especially for those of us in the beloved ACC.

So many people in the last few days have sounded the alarm for the student-athletes involved (we won’t discuss how many of these same “what about the kids?!” folks are the same ones who decry NIL money and the idea of players actually getting something out of the system that relies on them, at least not today). Many of those arguments focus on the student part of student-athlete. And rightfully so, but then again: We’ve been asking these student-athletes to do a whole lot more athleting in recent decades and been relatively okay with it.

Personally, I can’t help but think of the athlete part of the student-athletes, and by that I mean: It’s not their fault they’re being asked to play games amid all this foolishness.

You can hate that regional rivalries and pageantry have all been sacrificed at the altar of the TV dollar. You can bemoan the loss of tradition. You can be frustrated that nobody who cares about college sports seems to want any of this. And you can rail against the way football is the only thing that seems to factor into the equation. Those are all valid viewpoints.

But I just hope we don’t let those views and realities impact the support we give to the players and the interest they deserve. That's a very real possibility, too. That all of these changes drive everyone away. We can’t—and shouldn’t—lose sight that the kids who are working on their route running and backpedals right now, the ones who want to perfect their jump shots, the ones who want to turn double plays and crush the next 100 meters, all of them didn’t ask to do it now.

In the iconic words of one of my generation’s greatest: They were given this world, they didn’t make it.

All of this is to say that when this season kicks off, when the balls begin to bounce, when pitchers throw, when players set and swim and take a shot on goal, whatever animus we may have for college administrators and TV executives is all well and good. But the kids didn’t do this and they still are out there grinding just like we hope.

Over the course of my career I’ve come to know plenty of athletes and I can promise you the last thing they got to sound off about is what channel they get to play on.

As is often the case, the adults are screwing it up. The players deserve to have their shot and with it our respective support.

No matter what channel they’re on. No matter what league they’re in, now or tomorrow.

This will be the only system they know and I for one can’t wait to see what they do when they get their shot.