This is probably old but I have to wonder how big a role ESPN played in the musical chair scenario we are seeing now in College sports conference changes. The whole thing seems weird to have schools travel hundreds of miles more to join new conferences since one of the reasons to have these conferences was to foster geographical rivalries and keep distances reasonable. Now that is out the window. I think the ball got started when some Big East schools defected to the ACC. Somehow the ACC might have felt threatened by the Big East esp. in basketball. Perhaps Chris Berman and ESPN nudged some elbows and put the bug in some of these AD's ears. UC in particular will be hurt and it seems silly to join another conference where the distance between schools is much larger. But money talks and college is big business and where there is big $ there is often some hanky panky.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2011-10-27/is-espn-the-force-behind-college-conference-realignment/51019966/1
