With USC and UCLA heading to the Big Ten Conference. In the latest power five conference realignment move. One wonders how long college football will continue to live outside reality.

Besides the Big Ten expanding their marketing base from coast to coast. USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten barely makes sense. Two Los Angeles based universities are moving out of a conference featuring California rivals. Into a conference where their nearest rival will be nearly halfway across the country. Making traveling for Big Ten teams and fans more expensive. At a time where gas is hovering near five dollars a gallon on average nationally. While airlines are cancelling flights due to labor shortages.

Hopefully the economy will be in better shape by 2024. When USC and UCLA are formally set to join the Big Ten. However, even if the economy was in great shape. Travelling between Nebraska and California is still more challenging. Compared to travelling within a state or to a neighboring state. That’s part of what UCLA, USC and the Big Ten are taking on by making this move.

Expenses won’t be the only travel-related challenge for USC and UCLA. This will present a challenge for student-athletes. Keeping up with course work will be a challenge while jet-setting from coast to coast. Not to mention the effects jet lag will have. On student-athlete’s abilities to perform well in games. It’s getting harder for people to even mildly believe the idea. That college sports conferences and associations care about academics.

Math seems increasingly meaningless to the power five conferences. There will be 16 teams in the Big Ten. The Cincinnati Bearcats could soon be a part of a Big 12 Conference with 18 teams. Perhaps the Big Ten could rename themselves the Big Ten plus six. Or turn their conference name into an equation.

Geography doesn’t seem to matter much to major conferences either. The Big East Conference stretches as far west as Omaha. While the historically Midwestern Big Ten is stretching to the Pacific coast. I’m also curious how Big Ten schools will be tackling climate change. While Rutgers travels to Los Angeles for a conference game.

I don’t see how this unilaterally benefits academics and “non-revenue” sports. If belonging to a major conference helps a university so much. Why did Power Five schools shed non-revenue sports so quickly in 2020? Why aren’t tuition fees falling at many major universities? The benefits mostly stay with athletics instead of trickling down university. Leaving major football programs in particular living in a fantasy world. Where they’re mostly shielded from the financial problems colleges face.

College football is showcasing the lengths major conferences will go to maintain power. From the way the 2020 season was assembled amid the COVID-19 pandemic. To the failure to expand the College Football Playoff. Along with the ongoing westward expansions of the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences. While the Big 12 circles around remaining Pac-12 Conference schools like vultures.

College football holds the reigns amid this expansion wave. The Big Ten wasn’t attracted to USC solely for its basketball programs. UCLA brings the Rose Bowl in football and a tradition of excellence in many other sports. Amid this latest wave of conference realignment, there’s growing concern college football is heading towards forming a super league. Similar to the European Super League idea that collapsed within a week last year due to soccer fans outrage.

For the sake of protecting college athletics generally. Perhaps it’s time for a national college football league. Producing compelling made for TV matchups preserving and reviving rivalries. Featuring schools in regional and conference-based divisions. Advancing to a playoff system that looks more like the NFL than the current CFP. While the other college sports operate with traditional regional conferences out of economic convenience. Or sports specific conferences like the already existing National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Northern Kentucky University joined the Horizon League partly because it’s geographically convenient. In the Atlantic Sun, NKU’s closest rival was more than three hours away. Now they have a flourishing conference rivalry with Wright State. Both being roughly an hour away from each other. Both are also regional public universities founded in the late 1960’s. This rivalry is benefitting both schools and the Horizon League competition-wise. Especially in basketball, the Horizon League’s main revenue sport.

Meanwhile Bellarmine’s rise to NCAA Division I presents the possibility of reviving their rivalry with NKU. Regional dynamics made NKU vs. Bellarmine a natural rivalry when both were in NCAA Division II. These kinds of rivalries are gradually fading from the major conferences. Louisville and Cincinnati’s Keg of Nails rivalry is one example. West Virginia vs. Pittsburgh and Missouri vs. Kansas are additional examples. This wave of conference expansion continues the trend. Posing the possibility of turning major college football into a blander product for the masses.

Without significant reforms to college football, this major conference expansion will continue. Bloating conferences until they become geographically and athletically incoherent. While wiping out more of the local rivalries that make college sports fun.