TOWSON, Md. - By now, I am sure you have heard that old saw about how a pebble in a pond can cause ripples that eventually become a wave by the time it reaches the other shore?
Well, that rather sizable pebble of college conference realignment has the potential to cause a wave big enough to wash onto to the distant beach where schools like Towson exist.
By the time institutions like Texas A&M get done throwing their rocks into the pond, the resulting tsunami may flood the rest of college athletics and wash over places like Towson in the process.
In the next month, the Aggies may get their freedom from the remnants of the Big 12 and thereby be unleashed to head straight to the Southeastern Conference, tossing decades of tradition and partnership overboard.
Undoubtedly, the SEC will go on the prowl in looking for another school to round its membership out to an even 14. And the SEC will scavenge any league that is slow on the draw to pry loose a new member (Florida State, Clemson, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State should all be on alert).
In turn, schools in leagues like the ACC or the Big East or whatever is left of the Big 12 once A&M and others abscond will try to save themselves either by taking in dance partners to their old conferences or by jitterbugging their way into their own new associations.
(Oh, and for the younger crowd, wondering exactly just what this jitterbug that we reference is, go ask your parents. Or better yet, your grandma and grandpa. Go ahead. Call them up. They'd love to hear from you.)
So, how does this effect little old Towson and other schools on the presumably shallower end of the pond?
In the short term, there may be more deals like the one that match the Maryland brand of football Tiger to the LSU version next year. The theory there being that bigger schools will need more small schools to come to their stadiums and arenas to play football and basketball, all the while paying out handsome appearance guarantees for the privilege.
Sooner or later, however, the bigger schools are bound to align exclusively with each other in 14 or 16 or more team leagues that try to circumvent NCAA control in order to keep more of the bountiful and beautiful cash for themselves.
That's what all of this is all about or hadn't you been paying attention? The fact is that Nebraska and Colorado split from the Big 12 and Utah left the Mountain West for the Big Ten and Pac-12 and (cue the O'Jays) for the love of money.
And so, Texas A&M is abandoning the comfort of more than 100 years of association and rivalry with Texas for millions of shiny pennies in a conference whose members it has nothing in common with except for their mutual interest in getting all the money they can bleed from the system.
By the way, that system would be a whole lot more pure and there would be more cash to distribute through all parts of college athletics if schools like Texas A&M would do as schools like Towson do.
That is to say that if they permitted plans for a football championship playoff to move forward. That formula works perfectly in the Football Championship Subdivision where Towson resides.
In the FCS, 20 schools get the opportunity to turn an entire season's success into an actual championship trophy as opposed to a listing line on some nameless and faceless bowl's Wikipedia page. The student-athletes (yes, perish the thought, actual student-athletes) balance schoolwork and practice and playing time.
Amazing, huh?
And it could work in the Football Bowl Subdivision as well where a playoff, fueled by billions of dollars of television cash, would send said lucre through college sports and it could fund athletic programs all over the land.
That would, of course, require schools like Texas A&M to think of the bigger picture and about entities other than its own. For now, it appears that that pebble is too big of a boulder to be tossed into a pond anytime soon.
