The bright orange of Syracuse and head coach Jim Boeheim joined Pitt in bolting the Big East for the ACC. By Briles Takes Pictures (Flickr: Scoop and Jim), via Wikimedia Commons

Are you a College Football fan who is excited for the new conference alignment?  Good, I hope you’re satisfied, because this process of realignment virtually destroyed the greatest sports conference that College sports has ever seen.  The creation of the Big East as a basketball conference is one of the most significant events to take place in the history of college sports. Current Big East schools have been to 16 Final Fours. The dissolution of the original Big East that has taken place over the last eight years should be considered one of the most significant travesties American sports have ever seen, and it was all because of the desire to make the most money off athletes who are, first and foremost, considered students.

Student athletes, that’s a dynamic term, isn’t it?  Can anyone actually explain to me how we should accurately classify a student athlete, because it seems as if the individuals in charge of college athletics have forgotten about the student portion of this dynamic term.  When describing why they are leaving the conference, monetary gains are a driving force. So you’re telling me that a school is willing travel farther, subsequently taking a chance on the academic success of their students’ grades, just so that they can make more money?  That sounds absolutely disgusting if you ask me.  I’m one of the biggest College Football fans you will ever meet—I bleed orange for my Beavers—but I start having problems when school officials start sacrificing a student’s grade just so their schedule looks appealing to the voters who decide the weekly rankings.

The Big East’s basketball pedigree rivals the football dominance of the SEC. The Big East had a 16-team basketball super-conference years before the SEC moved to 14 schools.

Since 1979, the Big East has produced six National Champions and 15 of the 16 teams—South Florida being the lone exception—have made it the Final Four — the most of any conference. In 1985, six years after its creation, the Big East sent three schools to the Final Four—Villanova, Georgetown and St. John’s—with ‘Nova beating Georgetown 66-64, in a game that many consider the greatest College Basketball game ever played.  Villanova, as an eight-seed, became the lowest seeded team to ever win the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, a record the stands to this day.  Of course, Wichita State will have a chance at breaking this record when they take on top seeded Louisville—of the Big East—in this year’s Final Four on Saturday.

Fast forward over two decades to 2009 and you can find the historic game between Syracuse and Connecticut in the Big East Tournament which lasted six overtimes.  Syracuse beat Connecticut 127-117 in a game that started at 9:30 PM ET and ended well beyond 1 AM in the morning; Syracuse did not lead in any of the previous overtime periods.  102 of the 244 points came in the overtime periods, in a game that is the longest game in the shot clock era.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3koPRFXzi3o

Unfortunately, the opportunity for fans to watch games of similar pedigree involving the iconic Big East has ceased to exist.  Nevertheless, the Big East name will continue to exist through a new conference created by the “Catholic 7” universities—DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova—along with the recently added powerhouses of Butler, Creighton, and Xavier.  Even without schools like Syracuse, Louisville, and Connecticut, the “new” Big East still has potential to bring excitement that may one day match the historic competition that the Big East provided for over the past 30 years.

For the past fifteen years of my life — nearly as long as I can remember — the only constant in my life other than my family has been the enjoyment from sports. In fact, most of the friends I have maintained over this time period are individuals who don’t have a problem watching Sportscenter on repeat, to the point where you memorize what Neil Everrett and Stan Verrett will say on an upcoming segment. The competitive nature of sports makes them some of the most unpredictable events in the world; there isn’t a better feeling than hearing the phrase “game 7” or waking up on the morning of a rivalry game. With that being said, when there is love, there is hate; these are the five things in sports that grind my gears the most:

5.  The NCAA’s recent actions

College sports would not be where they are in today’s society without the NCAA; however, over the last few years the NCAA has made a number of questionable decisions regarding the punishments they have given to the universities under their control. I’m not questioning whether or not these universities deserve the punishment, but rather the inconsistency regarding the terms of these punishments that are causing fans to question the integrity of the NCAA.

The sanctions against the University of Southern California handed down in 2010 were over the actions of one player from an entirely different generation of USC football. Nevertheless, these sanctions kept the Trojans out of a National Championship Game they deserved to be in and prevented Matt Barkley from winning the Heisman, both during the 2011 season. There’s no reason to punish players who had nothing to do with the actions in question Instead, the NCAA should have put restrictions on the players who committed the rule violation. The head of the NCAA’s Committee of Infractions at the time of the USC ruling, Paul Dee, was the Athletic director at the University of Miami , which committed a number of violations during his tenure (1993-2008), including the most recent Nevin Shapiro scandal. How can the NCAA appoint an individual to the head of their violations committee if he can’t even control his own school? Because the NCAA has proven they aren’t even competent enough to control their employees. Last month, the NCAA admitted to improper conduct by its own enforcement staff and their involvement regarding the Nevin Shapiro scandal, adding to the long list of problems with the enforcement staff.

The NCAA is an association that answers to no one; either that needs to change, or their policies need to, I’d personally be happy to see both change.

Baseball’s Hall of Fame needs to make some adjustments. By Beyond My Ken (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

4. Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame voting

2013 marked the first time since 1996 the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voted zero members to the Baseball Hall of Fame; subsequently, this has become one of the most fiercely discussed topics of the New Year.  After the results of this year’s voting, most of the reactions were the same; a new policy clearly needs to be adopted, specifically the 15 year limit on candidacy. There is no reason for a player who deserves membership right away, to be forced to wait 14 years before the BBWA feels the urgency to vote them in during their 15^th year, which hopefully turns out to be the case with Jack Morris. Baseball has gone through major changes over the last 20 years—the addition of the designated hitter, the wild card playoff spot and game, and the addition of multiple teams—there is absolutely no reason for the Baseball Writers to refuse changes to their voting policy and criteria.

If the Hall of Fame is a place that claims to house the history of the best players and moments the game has ever seen, then something must be done in regards to the voting problems surfacing with the steroid era players. There is absolutely no reason to keep an entire generation of players out of the eternal sanctuary for baseball lore. Other than the original ballot in 1936—with names such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Cy Young, and Honus Wagner—there has never been another group of players of similar importance on the same ballot. This is an era in Major League Baseball that will never be forgotten. We shouldn’t act like it didn’t exist.

3. Conference Realignment

The landscape of college sports has seen dramatic changes over the last decade because of the constant movement between conferences by schools who are influenced by the goal of landing the largest television contract possible. I have never thought of myself as a traditionalist and I’m generally open to change, just not in this case. Conference realignment has occurred for all of the wrong reasons, and it has destroyed a handful of rivalries that have been around for over 100 years. The Missouri vs. Kansas and Texas vs. Texas A&M rivalries combined for over 225 years of competition, but abruptly ended when Missouri and Texas A&M decided to bolt for the Southeastern Conference in 2012.

Then there’s my personal favorite conference, the Pac-12, which expanded from the Pac-10 with the additions of Utah and Colorado in 2011; teams were ultimately split into two divisions as a result. Subsequently, my Oregon State Beavers have been forced to leave USC off the schedule for the past two seasons. After growing up in Southern California, there has been nothing more fun than talking smack to my friends about how the Beavers put a smack down on the Trojans or Bruins.

However, the effects of these changes don’t stop with football. The Big East conference, historically dominant in basketball, has been the primary victim of these changes with the loss of schools such as Georgetown, Connecticut, Syracuse and Villanova, just to name a few. This is a conference that sent a record 11 schools to the NCAA tournament in 2011, had a six-overtime game in the conference tournament in 2009, and most recently had a four overtime game a few weeks ago; the loss of this conference’s original core is one of the biggest travesties the sports modern era. Nevertheless, it is nice to see the Basketball dominant Catholic schools from the Big East take a stand for themselves in declaring their independence before the conference they helped create is torn apart from the outside because of football’s monetary interests.

2. The Media

Three things I would love to never hear discussed on television again: Brett Favre coming back to football; ‘Tebowmania;’ the next person in line to sue Lance Armstrong. I’m sure most people who tune into ESPN or any other sports media network on a daily basis would agree with me when I say enough with the repeated material.  Please do not flood my television with useless stories that lead to the same conversations every day. Focus on stories that are worth mentioning—this does not include Tim Tebow running through the rain with his shirt off.

I could really care less about the personal situations or problems that various athletes manage to get themselves into; does a sports fan really care how many times Pac-Man Jones manages to land in prison? If we want these individuals to act as role models for the youth, then the media needs to highlight the dozens of things athletes do every day to help people in need, rather than the things they do wrong. I see more ‘top stories’ about Gronkowski getting drunk than I do about the 350+ established charitable foundations started by sports figures.  ESPN’s “Make A Wish” series is a perfect example of athletes doing charitable work; albeit, the episodes may be a bit scripted and romanticized, but they are still working with professional athletes in all sports to make a difference in an individual’s life. With Social Media playing a huge role in today’s society, popular sports media needs to understand how much they influence the younger generations.

1. The University of Oregon

The University of Oregon’s sudden rise as one of the elite programs in College Football would not have been possible if their athletic program was not funded and utilized by Nike’s popular culture marketing campaign. Through the hundred million dollar donations of Uncle Knight, the Oregon Ducks football team started their ‘build and they will come’ recruitment strategy last decade and haven’t looked back since. Through this strategy, building and promoting revolutionary facilities is at the center of Oregon’s sales pitch to recruits; this has led to four straight BCS bowl game appearances. Some of the more recent ‘donations’ include an atrocious basketball court and a football training facility that will cost an estimated $60 million-plus. The Oregon athletic department is one of a handful of athletic departments in the country that is self-sufficient in operating without university help, I wonder why?

It’s easy to say I am merely jealous of the support the Ducks receive from Nike, but that could not be farther from the truth—in fact the school I support receives a substantial amount from this corporate behemoth as well. What grinds my gears is the pompous attitude from the bandwagoning fans who think the Ducks belong on the Mount Rushmore of College Football. Most of the recently-turned Duck fans have never even attended the University of Oregon or gone to a game there, but popular culture has told them to become infatuated with the ‘swag’ that pulses from their obnoxious jerseys every week. It has been a lot of fun watching their Heisman hopefuls and National title intentions crash and burn the last few years through memorable loses.

I guess it would be worth mentioning my status as a fourth-year student at Oregon State University is likely the source for every ounce of self-centered hatred inside of me that gets directed towards those hippies down south. But at the end of the day, being at the epicenter of one of the longest standing rivalries in college sports has been the single greatest experience of my life.

Go Beavers.