P.Ainstaking College Basketball Movement

As I lay writing this with my newborn sitting and squirming a couple of feet over, I have to admit that all of the hubbub around NCAA realignment is kind of exciting. I know, I know… some of it can feel nonsensical. And part of that may be the football lens. But I want to explore what all of this shake up, like the end of the Pac XY, could mean for college basketball. 

Make no mistake, USC and UCLA leaving the west coast for the midwest is not only the opposite of the migration pattern of a hundred years ago, but it’s a step up in hoops. Playing Michigan instead of Cal, Indiana instead of Washington, Purdue instead of Stanford… it is all a step up in the quality basketball. And I know these aren’t really basketball decisions- I see the same $$$ figures thrown out to televise a handful of football games all of you do. But the landscape in basketball, intentionally or unintentionally, is getting a dramatic facelift as well for the City of Angels as well. 

The West Coast is a hotbed of basketball talent. In any given year California, Texas, a random north eastern state, and a Carolina play musical chairs for the best state at producing High School hoopers. But unlike Texas, which feeds into the gauntlet that is Big 12 basketball, or the Carolinian region, which feeds into the historic programs in the ACC, West Coast kids flee for school in droves. Sure, UCLA has a blue blood’s history, and USC just landed LeBron James Jr., literally (and we hope he is continuing to rest and recover well), but kids are leaving for Arizona, UNLV, Wake Forest, Duke, Memphis, St. Johns, Gonzaga. Even Houston and UT Austin have top end recruits out of California- and they have their own backyard to find talent in!

Culturally if nothing else, USC and UCLA fleeing to the B1G adds to the exodus. 

Now, if Colorado and Arizona (and Oregon? And Washington?) all head to the middle of the country (like the B1G but further south, and even better at basketball), is west coast basketball losing some of its west coast identity? 

And while that’s exciting, as a Texan… is it good? 

EYBL and 3SSB (read:Nike and Adidas) have made high school hoops a national, year-round affair. Teams from St. Louis play teams from California so often they have legitimate rivalries. High school basketball academies from coast to coast rebuild their rosters with top end seniors every year, and each of their rosters have a lists of 10 different hometowns. So the idea of a “West Coast” style of basketball player, or a “Texan” style of hooper, or a “Carolina” style athlete, may all be falling by the wayside. 

But, if the Pac 12 falls apart, it certainly exacerbates that concept. If there’s no “power” conference on the West Coast, you’ll see them sprinkled throughout college basketball. The Big 10 gets the LA pair, but the PNW? Will Washington take their combination of northern Californians and Seattlites to middle-America for the Big 12? Or will if be Arizona, who capitalizes on the smaller cities in SoCal, heading to play in the Lone Star State for ⅓ of their conference games?

I don’t think Arizona, UCLA, or others will ever lose their individual basketball histories. Each of those are too rich to ruin (there’s a metaphor there for another time). But I do think that there’s a collective identity that is in danger, especially if clusters of West Coast basketball schools are about to be playing the majority of their basketball in the central time zone if not further east.

The Pac 12 may also be the beginning. Does UConn playing further south, instead of within a stones throw of Madison Square Garden, dramatically changes the feel of their program? Does UNC playing Michigan State every other year squeeze the last oft he regional pride out of those brands? Or does that even matter?

Much like college football used to be, there was a definitive “brand” on each region of the country and their college hoops. The Big 10 had the rim protectors, the Big East had point guard play. The Pac 12 had athletic two-guards and wings, the Big 12 had high-speed defense. In intermingling all of that, we don’t know if the schools keep their identity or if they’re all bound for the homogeneity that has taken over the NBA.

For what it’s worth, being in a national basketball conference is harder than being in a national football one. Playing in Houston on a Saturday and turning around to play in Eugene on a Monday, only to be playing at home in Lubbock on Thursday and in Cincinatti on Saturday, is a pro basketball flight and travel schedule. And while NIL laws do help kids with some compensation, the average college basketball player -even in a power conference- is far from a professional athlete. 

Taking out the (potentially online, because of the schedule) classes they have to take intermittently throughout the season, these kids also (theoretically) don’t get “pay to play” deals. That means they have to find time, amidst that chaotic schedule, to also advertise, support, make appearances, etc to earn their NIL deal. If that’s their income, does that take priority? Over what?

And that’s for basketball. The national schedule only gets more inconvenient for, say, softball, multi-day track meets, long golf tournaments… 

I’m excited to steal the grat basketball programs and bring them to the third coast, but I’m also not an idiot. There will be hiccups, like a lot, in doing this across all sports. And one of those could be some western identity in basketball…

I just hope it’s the kind of hiccup that goes away.