Daily Herald opinion: As Big Ten expands, make student-athletes' welfare a priority
This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.
The Big Ten is expanding again, this time to the Pacific Northwest. With its presidents' council accepting Oregon and Washington on Friday, the conference in a year or so will have 18 colleges in 15 states, including four on the West Coast and two on the East Coast - not just a Midwest conference anymore.
That makes more acute the question already being asked when the Big Ten last year welcomed UCLA and Southern California to also join next year: Is the students' welfare a priority at all?
It doesn't appear so for the TV networks. They are spurring such expansion, and overall conference consolidation, with giant deals in which universities gain millions - on the order of $60 million to $70 million per year each in the Big Ten. Universities' leaders aren't discouraging such deals, suggesting all students can reap the benefits.
But it's hard to disagree with the outspoken Deion Sanders, now coach of the Colorado football team, when he was asked about his school's move from the Pac-12 (which Oregon and Washington also will be leaving) to the Big 12.
"All this is about money, you know that," Sanders said, per Sports Illustrated. "It's about the bag; everybody's chasing the bag. Then you get mad at the players when they chase it."
Sanders was referring to the money players can now make for use of their names and likenesses, if not from any kind of salary or stipend beyond scholarships. Huge pressure is placed on the college football players - and perhaps that's what the top players signed up for as they seek a path to the NFL. Such that some argue that the NCAA and colleges should just admit that college football is basically the minor league of pro football (that should pay salaries).
Meanwhile, the issue of college conference consolidation and its effect on students goes beyond those on football teams.
How about all the other student-athletes, playing what are called the Olympic sports, like baseball and basketball, gymnastics and volleyball? Student-athletes are facing scenarios where they can be traveling across the whole country - while also trying to complete coursework. Illinois and Northwestern students could be playing in California one week and Maryland the next.
It's somewhat encouraging to see a couple of Big Ten schools' athletic directors, including Illinois' Josh Whitman, discuss with The Athletic last week the importance of efficient scheduling so that road trips could be taken to play multiple conference opponents within a short time span, and even so that teams in different sports could make the trips together. And even multiple schools' teams make the trips together.
No matter how college football shakes out, we will worry most about the student-athletes, most of whom are also trying to get an education and establish their lives.