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The Big Ten, the ACC and the Pac-12 announced on Tuesday an alliance that ultimately aims to “stabilize a volatile environment” in varsity athletics by collaborating on important issues facing the industry and agreeing to create a future planning partnership.
The programming component for women’s and men’s football and basketball “will begin as soon as possible while honoring current contractual obligations,” but the decision-makers involved said the alliance was not driven by revenue.
While there is no contractual agreement between the three leagues regarding the alliance – and nothing in writing that prevents them from poaching each other’s teams – the message passed on Tuesday was that the creation of the partnership diminishes any incentive for this.
“It was a point in time for three new commissioners to come in and say this has a chance to be really a volatile time,” said ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. “I think we all know, the story of expanding after one leads to another leads to another. Very rarely has there been a domino that fell that didn’t knock over a few more. subsequent membership changes.
“We’ve had friction between two of our really important conferences that make up the Power 5. And so trying to get some stabilization to try to work over the next few years in a way where we can collectively work together is so. important. “
The three commissioners who created the partnership earlier this month – Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff and Phillips – spoke to reporters on a video conference in front of a blue background that already combined the logos of the three conferences. .
The presidents, chancellors and sports directors of the 41 universities unanimously supported the alliance, according to a press release.
While there were specific topics they agreed to tackle together – including the future structure of the NCAA, issues of social justice and gender equity, the future of the college football playoffs and more – the actual news was more abstract. Conversations and questions focused on the future, leaving little to no impact on what that actually changes today.
The alliance between the three leagues has resulted in a summer full of changes. It started in June with a 12-team playoff proposal and snowballed with name, image and likeness legislation, a Supreme Court ruling that opened the door to compensation for the athletes, the desire to completely restructure the governance of the NCAA and the ongoing move of Big 12 Oklahoma and Texas co-founders to the SEC.
“I wouldn’t say this is a reaction to Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC,” Warren said, “but I think to be totally frank you have to assess what’s going on in the varsity athletics landscape.… It’s a year for seismic changes, and I think it’s really important to make sure you’re on top of all these different things that are going on, and make sure that ‘From our one-on-one conferences, we do everything possible to make sure that we protect our conferences and build strong relationships to ensure that we protect our student-athletes. ”
While the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have grown stronger together – and the SEC will become the first 16-team superconference – the future of the Big 12 is still uncertain.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby declined to comment, but ACC’s Phillips said they want the Big 12 to survive.
“Let me say it directly,” Phillips said. “We want and need the Big 12 to do well. The Big 12 counts in varsity athletics. The Big 12 counts in Power 5 athletics and our FBS group. And so I can just tell you that we’re going to be looking at this. that’s going on here – and obviously this transition isn’t supposed to happen for another four years. This particular group will be very interested in seeing what happens and doing whatever we can to try and make sure that, again, college and athletics is like it is today in terms of the number of opportunities, the commitment to each other. “
The three commissioners continue to meet with Bowlsby and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on weekly calls, and the 10 FBS commissioners will meet again in late September to discuss the 12-team playoff proposal with the 11 presidents. and university chancellors who make up the board of directors of the CFP. .
Phillips said the ACC has not made a final decision on its position, while Warren and Kliavkoff have expressed support for the expansion with caveats.
“I am a strong supporter of the enlargement of the college football playoffs,” said Warren, “but I am also a strong supporter of the method and the performance of our duties.”
Kliavkoff said the Pac-12 is “100% in favor of expansion” but there are “issues on the sidelines” that he wants to continue discussing.
“All the criteria related to the expansion of the CFP are on the table for discussion,” Kliavkoff said, “and any element of it is up for debate.”
The Pac-12 and Big Ten will at some point consider whether they want to move from a nine-game to eight-game conference schedule in order to open up another spot for a non-conference competition as part of the alliance. The ACC already plays eight conference games, but has a partnership with Notre Dame and also has its built-in rivalry games against the SEC.
“This is one of the things that we will have to sort out when the time is right,” Warren said. “We promise that we will keep all of our existing contracts and games in order.”
Kliavkoff said his league was contractually committed until the end of its media rights deal to play nine conference games.
“To go down to fewer games for three years, we have to have a partnership with ESPN and FOX to do it,” Kliavkoff said, “although I think there is a compelling argument that the games we could use them with. replacing if they were in the alliance would be very convincing and deserve to make that decision sooner. We will be working with our media partners and our alliance partners. “
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