Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC alliance expected to be formally announced soon: Sources
Schools within the three conferences believe they are like-minded, that they want to continue to prioritize broad-based sports offerings and that the academic profile of their institutions matters.
theathletic.com
Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC alliance expected to be formally announced soon
by Nicole Auerbach, The Athletic
The Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC are expected to make a formal announcement about their alignment soon, perhaps as early as next week, multiple sources told The Athletic. It's not yet clear how specific the announcement will be because there are so many details to iron out, although administrators in all three leagues have stressed in recent conversations that issues of governance can and should be front and center.
Schools within the three conferences believe they are like-minded, that they want to continue to prioritize broad-based sports offerings and that the academic profile of their institutions matters -- as does graduating athletes. For example, Big Ten schools sponsor an average of 24.8 sports per campus, with the ACC (23.8) and Pac-12 (22.9) not far behind. SEC schools offer an average of 19.9 sports.
Why these three conferences?
As much fun as it is to theorize about future nonconference games between Clemson, Ohio State and Oregon, that isn't necessarily all a potential Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC alliance is about.
The Alliance -- which really needs to be the official name of this, with capitalization, please -- goes far beyond the concepts of scheduling and television inventory.
There are many administrators in the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC who believe in the collegiate model and want it to continue; even those who have enthusiastically embraced name, image and likeness reform don't want to see college football become an actual minor league system for the NFL with a draft, player salaries and the like. They worry that the SEC's aggression could lead to something like that.
So, where does that leave the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC and their schools? That's the (multi-) million dollar question.
How does this facto into the expanded CFP?
There is hope within all three leagues that their commissioners will align to delay the implementation of an expanded College Football Playoff. Athletic directors in all three leagues have expressed concerns over the composition of the four-member working group that proposed the 12-team format and treated it as an inevitability without hearing from any representatives of the three leagues.
All three leagues have relatively new commissioners, which helps explain why the three have been in regular communication since news of Oklahoma and Texas' departure from the Big 12 broke. The Big Ten and Pac-12 have historically been aligned on key issues (and share contractual relationships with the Rose Bowl), and they moved together in their pandemic policy-making last summer. Those leagues also have financial relationships with Fox, whom they would like to get involved in the bidding process for an expanded Playoff. The ACC is more of a wild card, but new commissioner Jim Phillips worked in the Big Ten for more than a decade and has long defended the core principles of the collegiate model.
This is an uncertain time in college sports, and no one has a crystal ball to predict how this will all turn out. But just as the SEC bolstered its standing with the addition of Oklahoma and Texas, everyone realizes there can be strength in numbers -- at least, with the right bedfellows.
How does the NCAA factor in?
College sports is in the midst of a transformative time, one that has seen the NCAA more weakened and fragmented than ever before, challenged by the courts and its membership alike. It faces questions regarding gender equity at its marquee championships and its fundamental commitment to penalizing those looking the other way when issues of sexual violence occur.
It is not nimble, and its lack of leadership was exposed repeatedly in the last 12 months, from NIL to pandemic health and safety protocols. The NCAA has planned a "constitutional convention" for November in an attempt to overhaul and modernize its entire governance model.
But the thrust of the Power 5's problem with the NCAA as it is currently constructed is that there is too much representation for lower levels of Division I in addition to Divisions II and III. The makeup of the constitutional convention reflects as much. Those groups don't face the same pressing issues as, say, Alabama and Ohio State. But they remain under the same slow-moving national governing body, at least for the time being.
This is partially why the SEC made the move it did to add Oklahoma and Texas. "We're certainly a part of the NCAA structure -- and that's important -- but our identity stands alone," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey told The Athletic this week. "We're going to be good participants. We also expect significant updating of the NCAA's role and model, and I think there are some hard conversations ahead."
Translation: The SEC can chart its own course moving forward.
"It is a little bit of a challenge to follow the bouncing ball of what is anticipated to happen with the NCAA's constitutional convention," Sankey said. "That brings me back to a focus on the enhancement, the strengthening, the effectiveness of the Southeastern Conference as an organization."
