Herm Edwards provides perspective on changing landscape of college sports

Change isn’t always the easiest process to go through, but it’s something that’s inevitable and people are forced to adapt to their new surroundings in whatever situation they find themselves in.

We’re seeing that on a scale that’s never before seen in college athletics today – but Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards reminded everyone that situations like this have happened before, and conferences will continue to be realigned for years to come.

“Just think about this conference (Pac-12) alone. I can remember growing up on the West Coast, and it was the big five, big six. That was, what, in 1959 till 1964,” Edwards explained at Pac-12 Media Days. “Then it became the Pac-8, a conference that I played in at Cal Berkeley, right? There in ’78 it switched over and became the Pac-10. Lo and behold in 2011, whatever it was, it became the Pac-12.

“I think sometimes we sit here and we just realize the era that we’re in, that’s what we remember, right? So if you’re in this new era, this is what it is. Well, it’s changing. I say this, and I say this in a humbled way. Change is about growth sometimes and opportunity. According to what and how you believe it and how you sit, it affects people different. I look at myself. Without change, I’m not sitting here. I don’t sit in this seat. So I don’t look at it like, Well, this is going to mess up college football. It’s going to change college football, no doubt about that.”

Instead of figuring out what the Pac-12 is going to look like without two of their biggest cash cows in UCLA and USC – Edwards suggests that while the slew conference realignments will be a historic event, but “that’s life,” according to the Sun Devils headman. If teams don’t adjust, they’ll be left behind.

With both programs set to remain in Pac-12 for the next two seasons, Arizona State will be focusing on themselves and how to better the program. The question remains – is the Pac-12 the conference for them to do it in? As a wise man once said: you play to win the game.

“I think all of us are looking for answers. We don’t have answers. We have opinions. Everybody can play commissioner and president and A.D., all those people say I would do it this way,” Edwards said. “That’s great. Eventually there’s people with sound minds that are looking to do what’s right for college football. That’s the bottom line.”