With the Pac-12’s current media contract expiring, league members — who receive an annual payout each year — would not be subjected to “an exit fee” upon their departure, giving them leeway to search for alternative conferences that offer them a better deal. In other words, the progression toward “megaconferences” boils down to one thing: money.

While I don’t fault universities for wanting to do what’s in their best financial interest, I take issue with the schools’ clear disregard for the negative effects conference-switching has on college sports fans’ enjoyment of the game. College sports have thrived off of school rivalries for decades, creating an atmosphere where jocks and bookworms alike come together to rally around the home team and defeat their arch-nemesis. …

But conference-switching threatens to derail this great facet of American culture.

[It’s a little late in the game for this observation, although it’s certainly valid. Conference-switching has gone on for years, decades perhaps, and the big money in college football and basketball has been around my entire life. The better question is why this commercial system exists at all, and whether it would be better separated from academic institutions into a minor-league professional sports conferences. That would allow the athletes to get compensated and force the major leagues to take ownership of their talent-feeding process. And it would allow higher-ed institutions to focus more on education, although there are all sorts of ways they fail on that score these days apart from an obsession with athletics. — Ed]