Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Tom Holmoe retires from BYU, leaving behind a stable athletic department.
- BYU's football and basketball excel, yet college sports face uncertain changes.
- Big Ten and SEC dominated the NFL draft, highlighting financial disparities among conferences.
PROVO — Tom Holmoe will stroll into retirement on a high note, orchestrating great stability for the BYU athletic department with membership in the Big 12.
The two most visible and important sports, football and men's basketball, are thriving at a national level. Both programs finished their respective seasons in the national rankings, combining to create near unparalleled expectations starting in August.
The crazy thing is, with BYU in a great position, Holmoe is also leaving with uncertainty throughout all of college athletics. Among the hottest topics are constant roster shuffling through the transfer portal and the impending congressional ruling that is expected to change the methods for player compensation.
"Everybody in the country has questions," Holmoe said during an interview with The Zone.
The House settlement will allow schools to disburse money directly to the athletes. As it stands, outside sources mainly pay the players (although coaches and administrators often dictate the amount).
"That's a dramatic change," Holmoe said. "That's night and day."
Add in another round of possible conference realignment, which already has seen dramatic shifting in recent years. Football could break off into an NFL model with anywhere between 40 to 80 teams in the coming years.
His successor will grapple with all the issues, but Holmoe is deeply involved in preparing for the future. The money BYU has pumped into football and basketball shows the commitment to compete at the highest levels.
"If we can continue (to recruit well and win) we'll be in good shape no matter the decisions that are made external to BYU," he said.
Much of the power will likely rest with the Big Ten and SEC, the two football super leagues. Look no further than last week's NFL draft to prove where the best talent plays.
The two leagues dominated the draft, with each combining to produce 150 picks over the seven rounds. By contrast, the Big 12 and ACC had 73 players drafted.
The numbers are even more slanted at the top of the draft. Twenty-six of the 32 players drafted in the first round were from the Big Ten and SEC.
National champion Ohio State led the way with four first-round picks, followed by three apiece from Georgia, Texas and Michigan. With 15 selections, the SEC tied its own record set in 2020 for the most players taken in the first round.
The Big 12 and ACC combined to have four players drafted in the first round. The Mountain West and Missouri Valley conference each had one player selected.
A total of 13 players from Ohio State went in the first five rounds. Quarterback Will Howard became the 14th player selected, thus tying the program's own Big Ten record for most picks in a single draft.
Ohio State's total fell one short of the all-time draft record, trailing Georgia's 15 that was set three years ago. With 13 players drafted last week, Georgia remains one of the most dominant programs in the sport.
Arizona State, which won the Big 12 championship after being picked last in the conference, had only one player (running back Cameron Skattebo) drafted. BYU, one of four teams to finish tied for first place in the regular season, had no players drafted.
Three programs (BYU, Baylor and Houston) had no players drafted. Arizona, Iowa State and Oklahoma State and Colorado State each had four, followed by Kansas State at three, two each from Kansas, TCU, UCF and Texas Tech, and one by Utah, Cincinnati and West Virginia.
What does the overload of numbers mean?
As the football world waited breathlessly to see when Shedeur Sanders got picked (the quarterback went in the fifth round to the Cleveland Browns), the two best conferences continued to pull away from the field. As CBS Sports wrote, the Big Ten and SEC "are running away with the talent acquisition arms race."
The overriding concern is the growing financial disparity between the four power conferences, pitting the Big Ten and SEC vs. the ACC and Big 12. The Big Ten and SEC are set to bring in roughly $40 million annually through television contracts for the next several years.
