In June 1914, an archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian terrorist. The cascading domino effect far exceeded the historical importance of that single event, leading to more than 17 million people being killed in World War I. It was a catastrophe rooted in disastrous leadership, old grievances, sticky alliances, faulty logic, a lack of foresight and a surplus of hubris.
While obviously not carrying the same tragic stakes, the realignment of college athletics in recent years has been rife with similar dynamics. Universities have blundered wildly into places they shouldn’t have gone, for reasons they cannot adequately articulate. They’ve ridden a wave of the college sports version of nationalism, egged on by greedy TV networks, with panic and delusion superseding calm and reason.
One day, someone fires a pistol at Franz Ferdinand. Next thing you know, there were trenches stretching across the length of France, Americans battling in the mud, Britain invading Turkey.
