Arizona State AD Says ‘I’m Not Going’ to Travel To West Virginia After Big 12 Move

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Arizona State may be joining the Big 12, but that doesn’t mean its athletic director is going to travel across the country to watch his team play West Virginia.

“I promise I’m not going to Morgantown,” athletic director Ray Anderson told reporters. “I’m going to sign that to (deputy AD) Jean Boyd. He can go to Morgantown. But send me to Texas and the rivalry with Arizona and starting a new one with BYU, Utah and Colorado.”

Anderson’s comment underscores some of the criticism surrounding such rampant conference realignment, especially when it comes to non-revenue sports that play far more games than the football teams do.

There will be plenty of cross-country travel with the new arrangement, which will make life more difficult on the student-athletes.

Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz suggested as much when he raised concerns when speaking to reporters:

“My question is: Did we count the cost? I’m not talking about the financial cost. I’m talking about: Did we count the cost for the student-athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student-athletes? We’re talking about a football decision, based on football, but what about softball and baseball, who have to travel across (the) country? Did we ask about the cost to them?

“Do we know what the number one indicator or symptom of or cause of mental health (problems) is? It’s lack of rest and sleep. Traveling in those baseball (and) softball games, those people, they travel commercial. They get done playing … they gotta go to the airport. They come back, it’s 3 or 4 in the morning, they gotta go to class. I mean, did we ask any of them?”

Alas, those worries didn’t stop monumental changes from happening and the end of the Pac-12 as college sports fans know it.

Following the latest round of realignment, Oregon and Washington are heading to the Big Ten along with USC and UCLA. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado are going to the Big 12, which will now essentially cover the entire width of the country.

Anderson might not be making those cross-country trips from Arizona to West Virginia, but players in various sports will be in the near future.

That’s not to say there are no positives, as all the movement will create a number of intriguing new matchups. Those schools that are fortunate enough to be heading to the Big Ten and SEC in particular will now have the financial security that comes with favorable media rights deals.

But there are tradeoffs as well, and college sports will never look quite the same.