The Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC officially announced an alliance Tuesday that will see the three conferences work together on multiple fronts, from College Football Playoff expansion to NCAA governance issues and annual football scheduling.
"There is turbulence in college athletics," Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren told reporters during a virtual news conference. "There are things we need to address. We need to have strong leadership. We need to work together.”
The schools within the three conferences believe they are like-minded in that they want to continue to prioritize broad-based sports offerings and also, that the academic profile of their institutions matters — as does graduating athletes. One driving force behind the alliance for two conferences is a concern that ESPN controls and dictates too much of the sport.
“The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 recognize the unique environment and challenges currently facing intercollegiate athletics, and we are proud and confident in this timely and necessary alliance that brings together like-minded institutions and conferences focused on the overall educational missions of our preeminent institutions,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a statement.
The alliance is built on trust and does not have a legally binding contract, the commissioners said.
"There was an agreement among three gentlemen and a commitment from 41 presidents and chancellors," Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said. "There is no signed document, and there doesn't need to be. … We didn't focus on that, we didn't even talk about that."
In a release, the conferences said that the scheduling alliance "will begin as soon as practical while honoring current contractual obligations."
There will also be early and midseason games added between the conferences in women's and men's basketball.
Warren said the forming of the alliance was not a "reaction" to Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, but added, "to be totally candid, you have to evaluate what's going on in the landscape of college athletics."
“We have respect for each of our conference colleagues and look forward to our future collaborations," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement to The Athletic. "I believe we remain unified by our shared beliefs around the positive impact college sports has on the lives of student-athletes and throughout our communities."
While the Big 12 was not involved in the new group, the alliance's commissioners voiced confidence and support for the conference.
"We want and need the Big 12 to do well," Phillips said. "The Big 12 matters in college athletics. The Big 12 matters in Power 5 athletics and our FBS group. We'll be watching what occurs here."
(Photo: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)
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How concerning is the lack of a contract?
Stewart Mandel, college football editor-in-chief: The commissioners talked about their alliance helping stabilize college athletics, but the notion that these three conferences will just trust each other not to poach anyone else’s members is laughable.
It tells you that this whole thing is more of an informal sharing of ideas and, possibly at some later date, a means to schedule some non-conference games, but nothing that would prevent there from being future conference realignment.
What does this mean for CFP expansion?
Mandel: This is arguably the most tangible impact of the alliance. The three commissioners seem to all agree that while they like the proposed 12-team model their colleagues developed, they’re absolutely not going to rush into it.
Warren and Kliavkoff in particular come from business backgrounds and realize they’d be leaving a lot of money on the table if they just sign on for another term with ESPN without taking the new model out into the open market. That means it may be 2026 before the format changes.
Where does this leave the Big 12?
Max Olson, national college football writer: Phillips says they want and need the Big 12 to do well. Warren offered lots of praise for Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby. But the Big 12 was excluded from their pact because there’s just too much uncertainty surrounding the conference. Kliavkoff will make a final decision on expansion this week.
If the Pac-12 stays put and none of these Power 5 leagues wish to expand, the remaining Big 12 members could turn their focus to their own round of expansion. But they’d likely need clarity on when Texas and Oklahoma actually intend to exit for the SEC before going down that road.
How will this impact scheduling for schools?
Scott Dochterman, Iowa staff writer: Before any future matchups are set within the alliance structure, the leagues will need to synchronize their conference-only schedules to make this work. ACC teams play only eight in-league games, so there is room to add a Big Ten or Pac-12 opponent every year.
But the Big Ten and Pac-12 play nine league games, and several schools have non-conference agreements scheduled well into the next decade. Unless the Pac-12 and Big Ten choose to eliminate one conference game, then there will be only a few games among the leagues each year and annual rivalry games such as Iowa-Iowa State or USC-Notre Dame could prevent those teams from competing at all.