ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Announce Alliance: Why it Happened, What the Future Holds
Six months ago, a three-conference partnership in the world of college football would have been a foreign thought and concept. Now, it appears it was only inevitable.
On Tuesday, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced the decision to form an alliance. The announcement, held in a joint press conference, comes only one week after rumors of the alliance surfaced.
The Athletic first confirmed the alliance between the three leagues would happen a few days prior.
Why the Alliance was Formed
After Oklahoma and Texas officially accepted bids to join the SEC, the college football landscape was undoubtedly set to shake in different directions. With commissioners of all three conferences still relatively new in their positions, there was a desire to act swiftly.
These contributing factors made it easier for the three conferences to join forces:
Playoff expansion: The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 had no representation on the College Football Playoff committee (comprised of a whopping four people) that proposed a 12-team playoff in the future. It's clear the three leagues are against expansion.
Now with an even stronger pool of teams, the SEC would likely push harder for the playoff expansion to happen.
Television contracts: It's now more evident than ever: ESPN dominates the broadcasting market. ESPN is set to become the exclusive network of the SEC beginning in 2024, while also having a strong handle on College Football Playoff rights, which isn't set to expire until 2026.
While conferences such as the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 are locked into separate network deals, the appeal of interconference play could lead to lucrative broadcast deals in the future. This leads us to our next point:
Scheduling: The alliance, now spanning across all time zones in the continental U.S., would appeal to all audiences and create diverse matchups to compete with the new SEC's scheduling. This also ties into the television contract point, but matchups such as Oregon vs. Clemson and Ohio State vs. USC would be very attractive to any prime-time network.
The only roadblock? Each conference requires a certain amount of in-conference games (the ACC plays eight league games, Big Ten/Pac-12 play nine). Also, a handful of teams are locked into rivalries with current SEC schools, leading to some potential complications down the road.
Policy: As of late, the NCAA has taken a back seat and has allowed the Power-5 conferences to dictate and govern their leagues. As a result, conferences have gained more influence when deciding on policies, and the SEC strengthening their already loaded clip of ammo spells bad news for other conferences.
The alliance now helps the three conferences create and agree on a uniform policy, lessening the power the SEC would have if each league acted on its own.
Philosophy: Recent Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) laws could potentially alter college football in ways not previously thought. While advocation for athletes to profit off of themselves is generally accepted, that also plays into the hands of the big-bad SEC, whose players could receive more lucrative offers thanks to contractual factors such as potential exposure, audience reach and more.
The three conferences are strong in their beliefs of maintaining superb academic standing while also producing athletes who graduate, something the SEC has notoriously batted away thanks to their ability to push players to the next level with assembly line-like efficiency.
What Happens Now
Immediately? Next to nothing. Think of this as a chess move on multiple fronts. Oklahoma and Texas are set to join the SEC no later than 2025.
Emphasis is on the "no later" part, as many believe a legal battle between the Big-12 and the two departing programs is set to commence to allow Oklahoma and Texas to wiggle out of the conference sooner rather than later.
It's too close to the upcoming season to truly make any impact, so don't expect any imminent changes to the regularly-scheduled college football calendar. The earliest we should see any movement would be in the spring, where some of the aforementioned legal issues may ensue and conference commissioners can better game-plan in the offseason.
As for the Big-12, this can't be tremendous news. The two prominent programs are departing for greener pastures, while the other three Power-5 conferences have joined forces without you. Previous talks of expansion or partnering with other conferences fell through.
At this point, it appears as if the Big-12 is on a direct path to follow in the footsteps of the once prevalent Big East.
The future of college football appears to change by the week, for better or worse. However, conferences such as the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 are banding together to help keep the landscape of college sports as level as possible.
Donnie Druin is a Deputy Editor with AllSunDevils. Follow Donnie on Twitter @DonnieDruin, and AllSunDevils @AllSunDevils. Like and follow AllSunDevils on Facebook, and for more ASU news visit https://www.si.com/college/arizonastate/