Ugh. That's all that can be said about the following bit of commentary from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, as spoken on Coach K's radio show and transcribed by DC Sports Bog:
"This is an assault on tradition," Krzyzewski said. "What sets us apart from the pros? What sets us apart from the rest of the world? Intercollegiate sports is really something that only the United States has. No other country has that. And our thing is based on all the right values: loyalty, honesty, tradition. The branding that you have gotten from doing that has elevated the academic institutions that those athletic programs represent. And doing things the way we're doing it now, based on money, I think it takes away from the academic missions and the innocence that an academic institution has."
What is the "assault on tradition" that Coach K is referring to? The University of Maryland's migration to the Big Ten, of course. On the scale of Things About College Sports That Are Worth Wringing One's Hands Over, conference realignment ranks somewhere around 469. Of course, if you're the kind of guy who can attribute values like loyalty, honesty, and tradition to big-time college sports with a straight face, then yeah, I guess conference realignment is something worth getting bent out of shape over. Mike Krzyzewski is and always will be that kind of guy, lamenting about doing things "based on money" while his head remains buried in a pile of cash begotten by cheap labor.