“What cost is it to those student-athletes?”: Eli Drinkwitz sounds off on direction of college athletics
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
It's been a hectic week for the landscape of college athletics, which continues to shift.
The Pac-12 conference was dwindled down to just four member schools, following the departure of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Washington and Oregon over the past few days.
Arizona, Arizona State and Utah will all join the Big 12 conference, while Washington and Oregon will become members of the Big 10 in 2024. The decision stemmed from the drama surrounding the Pac-12's media rights deal with both Fox and ESPN.
Those announcements came on the heels of UCLA and USC both announcing the programs would be joining the Big 10 at the start of the 2024 season. Colorado also announced it's departure, as the school is set to join the Big 12 in 2024.
Essentially, it all boils down to the fact that many schools on opposite coasts will be competing in the same athletic conferences.
Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz was asked about the direction of college athletics and how this will affect the game of football. Overall, he said football will be fine. He is worried about the collateral damage from a football decision that will affect sports such as softball, baseball, volleyball and more.
"I thought the portal was closed. Oh, that's just for the student-athletes. The adults in the room get to do whatever they want apparently," he said.
You can watch Drinkwitz' full thoughts in the video player below. He began discussing the moves at the 6:25 minute mark in the video.
Drinkwitz said his biggest question is if the schools counted the cost that realignment will be for student-athletes. He pinpointed travel and mental health as two of the biggest areas of concern. Softball, baseball, volleyball, track and field and other teams do not get the same travel benefits as football. Those teams typically fly commercial, which means extended travel time for the athletes.
"Those people, they travel commercial, they get done playing at four, they got to go to the airport, they come back and it's three or four in the morning, they got to go to class," Drinkwitz said. "Did we ask any of them? I don't worry at all about the game. The game is gonna be strong, football is gonna be fine, we'll all figure it out. But, did we consider the people we are entrusted to? Did we consider the student-athlete?"
Quite a few Pac-12 athletes took to Twitter on Friday to express their concerns with the move. Drinkwitz saw those tweet, as well.
"They chose a local school so that they could be regionally associated so their parents could watch them play and not have to travel. Did we ask them if they wanted to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast," he said.
Drinkwitz emphasized, again, that he's not worried about football or his season or what the SEC schedule looks like.
"I know what the schedule is this year. I know what the SEC is," he said. "I've got no ideas or assumption on the future of college football. I feel confident that we're gonna play in about three and a half weeks and I got a lot of work to do."
