Doug Lederman, writing in Inside Higher Education about the recent realignment (schools moving from one conference to another) and compression (one major conference disbanding): “There is greater willingness of college and university leaders to prioritize the pursuit of television dollars (to sustain the ever-increasing budgets of their sports programs) over historical relationships with peers and the well-being of athletes who increasingly crisscross the country to play conference peers. (We are seeing) the growing consolidation of power by an ever-smaller number of universities in big-time football.”

Cover graphic courtesy The Ringer