Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz wonders if anyone has thought about student-athletes amid conference realignments

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Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz was among the coaches over the last few days who have seen the collegiate landscape changed dramatically after several Pac-12 schools bolted for new conferences.

But Drinkwitz wondered Saturday in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch if the officials making the decisions have thought about the student-athletes who will be affected the most by the shake-ups.

"Look, my question is, did we count the cost? I’m not talking about a financial cost. I’m talking about did we count the cost for the student-athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student-athletes?" he told the outlet.

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Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz was among the coaches over the last few days who have seen the collegiate landscape change dramatically after several Pac-12 schools bolted for new conferences. (Scott Winters/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"We’re talking about a football decision — they based it off football — but what about softball and baseball [teams] who have to travel cross-country? Do we ask about the cost of them? Do we know what the No. 1 indicator or symptom or cause of mental health is? It’s lack of rest and sleep."

"Traveling in those baseball/softball games, those people, they travel commercial, and they get done playing at 4 [p.m.] They got to go to the airport, they come back, it’s 3 or 4 in the morning. They got to go to class. I mean, did we ask any of them? Are we going to look back … ?"

Drinkwitz took the Tigers job after one season at Appalachian State. He became the head coach at Missouri in 2020 and led the team