Ignore the chatter, college football is set to flourish from Florida to California | Whitley

If you think college sports is in a money-driven death spiral, here’s a bit of good news. Toomer’s Corner will be back in business this fall.

That’s the spot on campus where Auburn fans deck oak trees in toilet paper after big wins. The old trees were poisoned by a ‘Bama nutjob in 2010, then their replacements caught fire.

Now, six years after being planted, the new oaks have been deemed toilet paper ready.

Take that as a metaphor for college sports, especially football. Things aren’t as dire as you’ve been hearing. And you’ve been hearing a lot lately.

If Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff had a dollar for every “College Football as We Know It Is Over” story, he could have paid his schools Big Ten TV money and thrown in Taylor Swift tickets for every Pac-12 athlete.

On the heels of NIL and transfer portal madness, the Pac-12’s sudden disintegration has revved the doomsday narrative. The past couple of years have indeed been jolting. There are victims worthy of our sympathy.

But the supposed villains behind it all aren’t as dastardly as they’re being portrayed. And the end result won’t be nearly as you’re being led to believe.

The main reason is there is no end result. The one constant with college sports - as with everything else – is change. For instance…

“KEEP OLD VALLEY”

That was a headline in the Oklahoma State student newspaper in 1928. Six schools had decided to abandon the Missouri Valley Conference. Oklahoma State (then Oklahoma A. and M.) was being left behind, and fans were none too happy about it.

Sounds like Pac-12 devotees in 2023. The big difference now is You-Know-What.

"The old question of: How long would it take TV money to destroy college football?” Washington State coach Jake Dickert said. “Maybe we’re here.”

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That points the usual finger at networks, conferences and schools that are in business together. “Business” being a bad word, of course.

But when you have a product worth billions of dollars, it must be run like a business. And the people in charge are hired to maximize its value.

If you’re a TV programmer, is it better to show Washington State vs. Utah or USC vs. Penn State? Or are you morally obligated to show “The Big Game” when Cal and Stanford combined don’t average 75,000 fans a game?

For the schools, more money means better recruiting, facilities, nutrition programs, salaries and ultimately happier customers.

FSU’s getting ripped for clamoring about the ACC’s TV deal. I’d gripe, too, if I was doomed to make about $300 million less than my rivals in the next decade, and the best advice I was getting was to shut up and go down with the ACC ship.

Perhaps Dickert forgot, but TV money is why he makes $2.7 million a year to coach football. And given consumer demand for the product, he’s worth it.

There are legitimate travel concerns for “minor” sports. But with four teams on the West Coast, the Big Ten can figure out a regional setup that keeps UCLA’s cross-country team from having to take a redeye back from Rutgers.

There is also legitimate sadness over rivalries like Oklahoma-Oklahoma State fading away. But you know what you get instead?

Oklahoma-Georgia. Texas-LSU. Oregon-Michigan. Texas-Texas A&M has been revived in all this shuffling.

Conference realignment is really just a case of creative destruction. New products, new methods always replace old systems.

Cars replaced horses. Websites replaced printed newspapers (sigh). Amazon is replacing malls.

The bowl system was replaced by the College Football Playoff. As much as I liked the bowl system and sportswriters deciding the national champ, the new setup is a big improvement.

Those six schools that abandoned the MVC became the Big Six, then the Big Seven, then the Big Eight. It absorbed half the Southwest Conference (R.I.P) and became the Big 12.

Now it has 14 members and a bright future. Sadly, the Pac-12 was run by buffoons and now has no real future.

Fans are irate, not unlike Missouri Valley fans in 1928. Or some Southern Conference schools that weren’t invited to the Southeastern Conference in 1932.

The difference now isn’t just money. It’s that every move is analyzed 24/7 on TV, radio, websites and a few remaining newspapers. Americans had other concerns during The Great Depression.

If all this doomsday talk has you depressed, take heart. College sports are more popular than ever. And 98% of its traditions live on.

Fans will still tailgate. The Ohio State band will still dot the i. Bevo will still patrol the Texas sideline. Georgia will still lose (someday) to Florida.

Remember, not long ago, people were saying Toomer’s Corner was over as we knew it.

Now it's bring on the toilet paper! All the new oak trees needed was a little time to flourish.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Conference realignment is healthy for college football