By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
Conference realignment has become a major topic of conversation over the last few years, both in college and high school athletics. Since 2023, some of the most high-profile Division One conferences saw a major upheaval including the Big 12, the Big 10, the Pac-12 and the SEC.
For many reasons, I loathed these changes. College athletics is largely about pageantry, rivalries and traditions. Sports are an incredible way to tell stories, and college athletics creates them better than most. I will spare you the long rant I could go on about why it’s best to keep these conferences regionally based, but, for this column, I’ll stick to the reason of money of.
The driving factor for a lot of these shakeups was due to media rights and the major dollars that follow them. This is why you have teams from California now regularly playing against teams in New York. Those media rights deals are, by far, the biggest money-maker in college athletics, and are the main factors in these changes, specifically with football. TV rights deals were up for renewal, and the Big 10 and SEC drew the most eyes and the best deals. So, we now get to see UCLA play Rutgers. Hooray.
Online sportsbook and casino platform BetMGM created a table showing every change from one major conference to another since 1991. From 1991 to 2014, 34 changes were made. Eight of these were the formation of the Big East by previously independent schools, so the real number is more like 26. Including changes to come in 2026, since 2023, there will have been 23 changes.
High School athletic conferences have seen their own fair share of changes in recent memory as well. You may have read in the most recent Guthrie County Times Vedette (June 10) stating how Des Moines Christian is leaving the West Central Activities Conference to join the Little Hawkeye Conference. The conference also previously invited another WCAC power, Van Meter, but the Bulldogs declined.
When it comes to conference realignment of Iowa high schools, the driving force is not media rights deals (and unless Iowa PBS and Mediacom want to get into a bidding war, I don’t see that sentiment changing soon). For schools, the main factors are the school sizes and travel distances. The conferences are likely most interested in maintaining competitive balance.
It’s no secret that Des Moines Christian has dominated inside the WCAC across several sports. I see this as a win-win. Their move will create opportunities for some of the smaller schools in the conference, and Des Moines Christian will soon compete in a conference with more schools closer to them in not only size but also travel distance. From the conversations I’ve had with ACGC and Panorama coaches, they enjoy the extra competition that comes with playing larger schools. I would not be surprised to see the Lions still popping up on the Panthers’ and Chargers’ non-conference schedules in the future.
That change might not be the last we see from the WCAC. Radio station KMA Land reported that ACGC, Panorama, Earlham and West Central Valley all received invites to join the Western Iowa Conference. The radio station stated that 10 schools in total received invites to the conference. The conference currently includes AHSTW, Audubon, IKM-Manning, Logan-Magnolia, Missouri Valley, Riverside, Treynor, Tri-Center and Underwood. What these schools will decide to do is not yet clear. I have personally reached out to the activities directors of Panorama and ACGC for comment on these reported invites and will report back what I am told.
Reach out with your thoughts, comments and ideas to cyote@dmcityview.com.