Realignment is becoming a battlefield, and San Diego State is the hill to be taken

George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower would recognize the chat we had with @MarkRogersTV: You take a hill before the enemy can get it. Realignment feels that way right now.

Korea, Vietnam, Normandy? No. San Diego State is the central theater of military metaphors these days. It’s not what anyone expected, but college sports realignment really does seem to be a battlefield these days. The discussions involved in realignment are acquiring the tones and textures of a conversation military generals could relate to.

San Diego State has become such a hot and central topic in the midst of the Pac-12-Big 12 firefight because it represents an available way for both the Pac-12 and Big 12 to plant a flag in Los Angeles with USC and UCLA heading to the Big Ten. San Diego State has become the hill a military unit must capture in order to gain higher ground and a more favorable battlefield position. This has been one of the more unexpected but genuine plot twists in the larger theater of college sports realignment. It invites the question: What are the hills other conferences need to take in other regions of the country to fortify themselves in a long-term context?

We discussed this with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football. Our weekly USC live show is on Tuesdays just after 1 p.m. in Los Angeles:

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