Dan Mullen shares feelings on money impacting conference realignment

People across the country have left no buts about the reason why conference realignment has happened at the rate that it has over the past two weeks. Dan Mullen was the latest to do so as he called out school presidents for how they’ve gone about generating their funds.

Mullen shared his thoughts during an appearance on ‘The Matt Barrie Show’ on Wednesday. He realized as well as anyone that money is driving these choices but added more blame needs to go on university leadership rather than athletic departments considering where the leftover money is going to end up.

“It is a shame. And you get into what drives this, the whole realignment, is the money, right? It’s the TV rights, it’s the money,” said Mullen. “Don’t think it is just the athletic department or these people wanting it. It is the president of the university that’s sitting there and saying, ‘If I move over to this league? I essentially just got a massive donor giving money to the school.'”

“The TV money is going to go above and beyond the athletic department budgets,” Mullen continued. “Guess where that surplus goes? And guess what the presidents (are saying) when they sign that deal? Athletic department? You get this much of the cut – but the university gets the rest.”

From there, Mullen further looked at the disaster that has become the Pac-4. He said the downfall of the Conference of Champions could have been better avoided had they themselves been more open and willing to go down the path of expansion.

“What is a shame is if maybe one more year? If the Pac-12 had one more year? I know the TV rights were coming up and everybody looked at it and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to go be aggressive,'” said Mullen. “The Pac-12? They stayed pat, I know, because of the academics they had and some of the things they had.”

“But there were a couple teams out there that you look at the quality of football? They snubbed their nose at Boise State for all those years. A quality football team that people actually enjoy to watch. They could have, maybe, even thrown in a UNLV with the Las Vegas market and the new football stadium,” said Mullen. “BYU is the other big one. And, all of a sudden, you own the west coast, you maybe get some negotiating rights. Your TV rights were coming up in a year and you’re the hottest thing in the country.”

Money talks in more ways than one and has proven to do so amidst conference realignment. Mullen just wishes that the leadership of the former Pac-12 had learned that lesson before presidents in the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC had.