ADs Speak Out on Finances, Fairness and Realignment

We had a stellar panel of ADs this morning to talk about the financial and competitive landscape for college sports.

Here are some quick hits from the session:

Missouri AD Mike Alden on the school moving to the SEC: "When you transfer to a new neighborhood, you have to learn who your neighbors are. We know over the course of the next several decades it will be a tremendous move. We weren't relevant in Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa-St. Pete. Our footprint went from 45 million households in the Big 12 to 89 million overnight. To expose Missouri to a broader audience has been a driving factor in all of this."

Michigan State AD Mark Hollis on Big 10 realignment: "Nebraska involved a dating process before we got married. With Rutgers and Maryland we got married and now we're trying to figure out how to live under the same roof."

NC State's Debbie Yow on realignment: "If the money were the same, nobody would be switching [conferences]. It's all about the money."

Yow, on the feeling of isolation that Maryland, her old school, felt being on the outskirts of the ACC: "One time Coach [Gary] Williams said, 'Up here in Alaska,' as a way to refer to the ACC. When [I] was at Maryland we used to call the ACC the All Carolina Conference. You always feel that way when your headquarters are in another state."UConn AD Warde Manuel on traditions lost by realignment: "There's a lot of concern among the fan base that the things that 'I grew up knowing and loving are changing in front of me and it's going to have a negative impact on me.'"

Yow, on traditions: "There will be some pain as anybody changes conferences ... there's no appreciation for the history of that particular school. Maryland played Duke in men's basketball. Tens of thousands of alums are familiar with that tremendous rivalry, and it died.”

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