For Non-Football Athletes, a Move From Pac-12 to Big Ten Isn’t Necessarily Rosy

The added travel demands and differing competition make the seismic shift of realignment feel huge for sports like softball.

Oregon infielder Paige Sinicki reacted just like so many others when the news of Oregon and Washington’s move to the Pac-12 was formally announced. After a back-and-forth, on again off again week, she woke up on the morning of Aug. 4 thinking it wasn’t going to happen, only for the news to come down late in the afternoon while she was sitting on her couch.

“It was pretty emotional at first hearing the news of the Pac-12 just because of the history it has and the presence it has with softball,” Sinicki says. “I’ve been committed to playing in the Pac-12 since I was 13. I think it was such an emotional reaction with other teammates as well because of how long I’ve been thinking about the Pac-12. It just hit me with a shock at first because I wasn’t expecting for sure this decision was going to happen.”

She took to Twitter to express her feelings in the moment.

I picked to play in a high level softball conference where being close to home would allow my parents to come watch my games. It’s unfortunate to hear that my senior year I’ll be playing as far as New Jersey-Rutgers as well as other east coast schools.

— Paige Sinicki (@paige_sinicki) August 4, 2023

The Pac-12 isn’t just breaking up a league with a deep football history, it’s cracking arguably the nation’s best softball conference. Sinicki grew up idolizing legends like Arizona’s Jennie Finch and UCLA’s Lisa Fernandez along with, more recently, Washington’s Sis Bates and UCLA’s Rachel Garcia. The SEC will only up its considerable softball bonafides when it adds Texas and reigning three-time national champion Oklahoma, but Pac-12 softball has been the historically dominant league in the sport, and since 2018, every current school has made at least one Women’s College World Series. UCLA has the most national championships (12) followed by Arizona (eight). Combined with Washington, Arizona State and Cal, they won almost every national title from ’01 to ’11. The only school to break up that decade run of dominance was Michigan, who beat future conference-mate UCLA in the ’05 championship.

The Wolverines have run Big Ten softball, breaking through on the national stage along with occasional blips from Nebraska, Northwestern and Minnesota, but the landscape in the league was always set to change with the retirement of longtime Michigan coach Carol Hutchins, who led the Wolverines for almost 40 years and retired after the 2022 season. Now the Big Ten adds three high-level programs (USC does not have a softball team).

Oregon’s first season in the Big Ten, 2024, will be Sinicki’s senior year. Her biggest concern is the travel strain. Football players, for the most part, will be fine with once-a-week travel and only playing one game on a given weekend. Oregon softball flies commercially for regular-season three-game series out of either Eugene or Portland, a short bus ride away. Even to more regional destinations like Arizona and Utah, the trip takes a bite out of Sinicki’s school schedule and already includes leaving on Thursdays and getting back late on Sunday nights.

“If we tried to leave on Thursday, there’s no way for us to leave at a decent hour, especially with the time change, to fully be ready for our game on Friday,” Sinicki says. “That’d mean for sure leaving on Wednesday morning most likely so that we really only go to school Monday/Tuesday which for me personally is hard. I’m a Human physiology major and a lot of our classes are offered Tuesday-Thursday like bio and chemistry. Even my higher-and upper-division classes. Realistically going to school one or two days a week for travel days like that for the Big Ten.”

The schedule is already tough for Oregon, which typically does not play a home series for the first five or six weeks of the season, playing in non-conference tournaments where the weather is more favorable than the Pacific Northwest in February. But beyond herself, Sinicki thinks of her parents, who live in Las Vegas and can reasonably get to many of her games in Utah, the Arizonas and UCLA. Her father is retired, but her mother still works and getting time away to fly east may be challenging.

In the days since the seismic shift, Sinicki has processed what the change will mean with teammates and heard from athletic administrators, including athletic director Rob Mullens. She’s trying to look on the bright side about what it may do for recruiting and seeing more of the midwest and east coast than she ever has.

“It’s always hard to think about what might be the best decision in the long run with all that,” Sinicki says. “There’s both sides pulling on me. I’m gonna obviously miss the Pac-12 tradition and history that’s provided with softball but until I actually do it, it’ll be something I’m not sure of exactly. I’m excited and looking forward to this new opportunity with the Big Ten. [Our athletic department] definitely thought through what’s best for us in the long run. I’m just gonna trust them for now and hope that this Big Ten will be huge for us Pac-12 fans.”