One college football legend doesn't think conference realignment is smart

Nobody who knows anything about college football, or indeed college sports in general, seems to like the latest trend of realignment.

Conferences like the SEC and Big Ten are getting bigger while others -- such as the once-legendary Pac-12 -- have become obsolete.

While growth and change aren't necessarily a bad thing, the way that this new round of expansion has gone has been nonsensical, to say the least.

“I don’t think it’s real smart," college football icon Steve Spurrier said in a recent interview (h/t On3). "It’s all about money and so forth. If they continue to play their in-state rivals and all that, it might make a little more sense."

To Spurrier's point, one of the biggest downfalls of realignment has been the impact it has had on rivalry games. The "Bedlam Series" between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State goes back to 1904. With Oklahoma headed to the SEC in 2024, there's a chance that will be no more. The same can be said for rivalries between Oregon and Oregon State now that the Ducks will be in the Big Ten. What about The Apple Cup rivalry between Washington and Washington State? Wazzou's future is up in the air now that the Pac-12 is all but dead. The Cougars have bigger problems on their plate than continuing their long-standing rivalry with the Huskies.

Not only that, but these new conference maps are going to be terrible for the non-revenue sports of all the impacted schools.

Spurrier also made that point, saying, "If Arizona and Arizona State want to go with the Big 12, just go with football and leave all the other sports to play the people close by. I wish they would do that and that would keep it a little more in the common sense area than traveling across the country for a tennis match or a swim meet.”