Chip Kelly suggests college football become independent after latest realignment shakeups

The latest round of conference realignment dramatically changed the college athletics landscape. The Big Ten will soon stretch to both coasts and the Big 12 will find itself in four time zones as the Pac-12 saw eight total teams leave.

Football was the focal point of the changes — not to mention media rights deals, of course. Multiple Olympic sport athletes in the Pac-12 voiced their concerns about travel and mental health considering teams could feasibly go from Eugene, Oregon to Pescataway, New Jersey. Sports such as baseball and softball play over multiple days, which led to the worries about how all the traveling would impact student-athletes.

Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz previously spoke out about how Olympic sports would be affected, and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin offered a ringing endorsement of his remarks. NCAA president Charlie Baker also shared concerns about the “highly disruptive” realignment in a statement to On3’s Pete Nakos. But on Tuesday, UCLA coach Chip Kelly offered a potentially groundbreaking suggestion — and he used Notre Dame as the prime example.

“Notre Dame is an independent in football, but they’re in a conference for everything else. Why aren’t we all independent for football?” Kelly said. “Take the 64 teams in Power 5, make that one division. Take the 64 teams in Group of 5, make that another division. We play for a championship, they play for a championship, no one else gets affected.

“Our sport’s different than everybody else. We only play once a week. Travel’s not a big deal for football, but it is a big deal for other sports. That’s my theory, but I don’t have a vote.”

The Big Ten is going to increase from 18 teams in 2024 as four Pac-12 programs — UCLA, Oregon, Washington and USC — all make the move to bring the league to the West Coast. Four other teams are heading to the Big 12 as Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah leave the Pac-12 that year. That left the so-called “Pac-4” of Cal, Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State left behind to figure out what’s next.

The aftershocks of the realignment moves are still being felt. Multiple reports indicate the ACC could be looking into Cal or Stanford, along with potentially SMU, as it weighs expansion. It’s possible the dominoes aren’t done falling, and football is at the forefront of the conversation.

That’s why Drinkwitz — whose comments quickly went viral — sounded off about what could lie ahead for athletes in Olympic sports.

“All right, I’m gonna say it,” Drinkwitz said after a lengthy pause. “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. My question is: Did we count the cost? I’m not talking about a financial cost. I’m talking about did we count the cost for the student athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student athletes?

“We’re talking about a football decision they based off football. But what about softball and baseball who have to travel cross country? Do we ask about the cost of them? Do we know what the No. 1 indicator or symptom or cause of mental health is? It’s lack of rest and sleep. Traveling in those baseball, softball games, those people, they travel commercial. They get done playing at 4, they gotta go to the airport, they come back. It’s 3 or 4 in the morning (and) they gotta go to class? I mean, did we ask any of them?”