A west coast Illini fan on why conference realignment makes sense

Look. I understand that conference alignment doesn’t work for everyone. While it does make sense for college football, it doesn't make sense for the basketball, baseball, and Olympic sports teams.

Let's be honest — it only makes sense for football, where student-athletes travel at most once a week and maybe, once a year, travel two weekends in a row. But the travel is constrained on the weekends, unlike basketball which may play a game in LA on Tuesday, Seattle on Thursday, and Champaign on Sunday.

This is a big concern moving forward — and that does matter. The game should always be played with the student-athlete's mental state in mind with their already demanding practice, education, and…