DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Big 16, ACC, and Pac 12 form alliance.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...ounced-tuesday/

The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 are expected to formally announce their long-awaited alliance on Tuesday afternoon, sources close to the situation tell CBS Sports. The agreement between the three conferences will focus on NCAA governance and college football scheduling, but the leagues also plan to get on the same page regarding future College Football Playoff expansion.

Realignment among the three conferences has not been part of their discussions and will not be an issue addressed with the alliance. However, a significant portion of alliance conversations have been based on ensuring that athletes' academic success remains integral to the college sports experience.

"Some of things we've been doing to ourselves, that just needs to stop," said one high-profile official from a school within the would-be alliance. "Some of this [censored], we're talking about expanding to 12 [teams]. For two teams that [go all the way], that's 17 games. We're going to talk about 'these kids aren't professionals' and we don't pay them? I firmly believe in the academic value of what we're doing, but at a certain point, it looks like professionals. … I firmly believe in the academic piece that we're providing."

The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have actively been engaged in discussions about forming a scheduling alliance for at least two weeks. The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach first reported that an announcement would come Tuesday.

Why is the alliance necessary?
The alliance became a priority for the three Power Five conferences after Texas and Oklahoma moved to the SEC from the Big 12. Talks between the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 have been described to CBS Sports as a "non-aggression pact" against the SEC after the Big 12 was destabilized following the losses of the Longhorns and Sooners. That power grab tipped the scales toward the SEC in future college athletics dealings.

College athletics as a whole remains wary of the SEC and ESPN dominating … everything. Big 12 revenues will decline by at least 50% with the losses of Texas and Oklahoma. It would serve ESPN well financially if the Big 12 were to fade away as that would be one less set of TV rights to pay out.

Even with the alliance, the SEC will likely maintain its advantage as the conference with the most best teams.

How will it affect playoff expansion?
Though a 12-team model has been proposed for CFP expansion, there has been substantial push back about slowing the timeline of increasing the field size with the moves of Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC. The structure, access and value of an expanded playoff have yet to be determined, but considering SEC commissioner Greg Sankey was a persuasive member of the CFP expansion committee that came up with the 12-team proposal, it comes as no surprise that the three remaining full-strength Power Five conferences want to press pause.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 in particular may be interested in opening the CFP deal up for bidding once the field is expanded. In order to do that, the current contract with ESPN will need to expire in 2026. Even if those in power agree on an expanded field, the alliance could wield power in delaying its implementation until that date. The next set of CFP expansion meetings will take place in late September.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 also intend to keep pushing for inclusion of the Rose Bowl -- in its traditional form -- as part of any playoff expansion talks. Even without the alliance, those two conferences would support the traditional date and time of the game, Jan. 1 at 5 p.m. ET, with their teams competing in Pasadena, California.

Will there be a scheduling agreement?
If the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 agree to play scheduled nonconference games against one another, it would certainly enhance certain teams' schedule strengths and create interesting matchups for both fans and TV networks. However, any scheduling piece of an alignment would not have an immediate impact in terms of TV revenue.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 previously discussed a scheduling alliance in 2012. The discussions eventually fell apart, but back then, it was reported that it would take at least five years until nonconference schedules could be adjusted accordingly.

One Power Five athletic director speculated that it could take 10 years to unwind nonconference schedules. One example: Michigan plays Oklahoma in 2026 and Texas in 2027. Do the Wolverines want to add another Power Five game from the Pac-12 or ACC in those years and then play a Big Ten schedule?

Will the alliance have far-reaching influence?
The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 want to be viewed as three-pronged entity that shares similar views regarding NCAA governance at a key time with the association in the process of being remade. A constitutional convention will be held in November to essentially deregulate college athletics. Going forward, the conferences will have more control over legislation. If three are banded together, they could wield significant influence.

That means the alliance could have considerable impact -- perhaps even more than the SEC -- on what college athletics looks like off the field. The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 could -- as a group -- support a more conservative model like what exists today. The voting structure hasn't been worked out, but Power Five conferences currently enjoy a weighted voting advantage in NCAA governance.

"I think it's a big portion from my perspective," said Michigan AD Warde Manuel of the alliance's academic pursuits. "That's going to be critical long term to what we do."

While name, image and likeness rights appear to be here to stay, new governance could come down to issues such as roster sizes, coaching staff sizes, eligibility issues and requirements regarding athletes making progress toward a degree. The alliance could draw a line in the sand on those issues. Of course, the way things stand for the future, the SEC could make its own policies.

Other sources said that antitrust issues could arise with a three-conference alliance. There is a fine line to be straddled in terms of potential collusion. An alliance between the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 would represent 60% of the current Power Five.

Sources reiterated that the 40 schools comprising the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 wouldn't "boycott" the SEC and stand directly opposed to it, but their foremost goal would be to pursue "their own interests".

Maybe the SEC could form an alliance with their rape victim, the Big 12 conference.

They've already decided to go the divide and conquer route. You know, southern tradition and all.

College football is getting pretty strange

It's starting to resemble a bad Star Wars movie.

What is the problem? Is the problem that the SEC schools, 16, will be in position to get way more money per year, maybe even 4 fold more money per year
than any other schools from college football, anywhere in the United States.

If that became so, then those schools could manimpulate any other school program by scheer leverage of, "you can make 4 dollars here or continue with only 1 dollar where you are at.
And then force them to comply to whatever demand to remain in the in crowd
and an end result of the SEC ruining college football for the entire country.

I'm sure foreign interests set on taking over the US delight in any ruining of anything that isn't yet broken across the USA. So they'd be on board.

The SEC is starting to do what I have proposed all along, just go do your own thing, the others will follow.

It's fluid at this point. The NCAA is pretty much done. Give it a few years teams like Ohio State and others will join up with the SEC to form a new football league or conference of 32 teams or whatever. It won't be the SEC or Big 10 or whoever, it will simply be a new alliance of college teams playing for all the money. Everybody else will be like Division II.

That may still be 10 years down the road, but the boat is in the water.

Smaller schools like UTEP, Houston, NMSU and Idaho will find it hard to bring in good players and be in the national spotlight. Some of the schools may just give up football all together. That would be a shame that some 2nd tier players will not get those scholarship's that is their only path to a higher education.

Since it will now be the Big 16, ACC, and Pac 12 that will have the larger team base I think you meant the SCE will join up with them.

I can’t wait to see one of our teams beating the SEC and the fans start chanting B.A.P!

As if we didnt see this coming before, the NCAA is all but done now

I found this a interesting read I saw on "Football Scoop". I hope the Big 12 makes a go of it. While I can't say I sit down on Saturdays to watch Kansas v Kansas St unless it is for a hour while waiting for another game to start, I don't want the league to fold in to oblivion. Also, with Kansas as the lynchpin, it could be a pretty good basketball conference.

As a side note commentary, I would like to see the NFL dump Thursday nights. I think the players would be in favor of that, and turn Thursdays over to the colleges. Give it to the Big 12. Maybe in the 80's or 90, I remember the MAC played on Thursday nights. I almost always watched and became a fan of MAC football.

......................................

It's time for the Big 12 to be the Big 12
Zach Barnett 12 hrs ago
4 Comments
|




And so it's done. To the surprise of no one, the Pac-12 announced Thursday it will not pursue expansion. There are no rumblings of the Big Ten and ACC growing beyond 14 and 15, respectively, either. The big move those three had in response to the SEC's annexation of the Red River Rivalry was creating The Alliance, thereby designating the Big 12 was the clear No. 5 in the Power 5.

In other words, today should be the first day in the rest of the Big 12's life. We're five days from the 25th anniversary of the inaugural Big 12 game -- Kansas State 21, Texas Tech 14 -- and Aug. 26, 2021 should be about plotting the conference's next quarter century.

View the original article to see embedded media.
It should be about putting the Big, and the 12, back in Big 12.

If I'm in charge of the conference, I go get BYU, Boise State, UCF and Cincinnati and I go get them today.

None of the four require much explanation, but here's a short one.

BYU: BYU is easily the most 'Power 5' school not in the Power 5. It has a modern-day national championship and plays in a 64,000 seat stadium it regularly fills. Its $1.8 billion endowment would be the largest in the Big 12 and larger than Oklahoma's, Alabama's and Nebraska's, to name three blue-bloods.

Boise State: A natural rival to BYU, and their history of staging epic games with TCU in the semi-recent history doesn't hurt, either. I'm building this conference with staging compelling football games as my first, second and third priorities, and people know Boise State football.

UCF: If it were possible to invest in college football programs, UCF would be the stock you'd purchase. A massive university with a young, energetic alumni base, UCF has appeared in New Year's Six bowls under three different head coaches since 2013, which is two more than Texas. UCF joining the Big 12 may not inspire Orlando-area kids to spend their college years in Lawrence or Manhattan, but there's more than enough evidence UCF would carry their own weight athletically and financially.

Cincinnati: If it's possible to be old money and new money at the same time, that's Cincinnati. This program is where TCU was a decade ago, with purple exchanged for red. The Bearcats have been in a zillion conferences and won all of them, and Luke Fickell has built a sustainable program. Again, no promises Ohio kids would want to play Big 12 football, but the Bearcats would compete immediately.

In short, I'm getting the best football team (Cincinnati), the best football job (UCF), the best football brand (Boise State) and the best overall university (BYU) available.

No, the money may not make sense on a spreadsheet as we sit here today on the eve of the 2021 football season. The best estimates indicate the Big 12's TV payout may drop from $24 million to $12 million per school once Texas and OU leave, which is A) half of what they currently earn, and B) still nearly double the $7 million the AAC schools earn.

It's certainly plausible an estimated $12 million per school payout for eight teams drops to, say, $10 million per school at 12 teams. But how can the conference expect to thrive from a crouched position?

Look, this alignment isn't perfect. Each of these four schools have their drawbacks -- if they didn't, they'd be in the Big 12 right now. A conference that stretches from Orlando to Boise, from Morgantown to Provo is the furthest thing from ideal. A West Virginia vs. Cincinnati Big 12 football game sounds weird to me, too.

But given the imperfect options, this is how I divide the conference.

Big 12 East

West Virginia

Cincinnati

UCF

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Big 12 West

Oklahoma State

Baylor

TCU

Texas Tech

BYU

Boise State

As for the championship game, the TV viewer in me wants to see a packed, snowy Milan Puskar Stadium on the first Saturday of December instead of a half-full AT&T Stadium. But the spiteful conference executive wants to sign a 25-year lease because screw the idea of letting the SEC even think about moving its title game from Atlanta to Dallas.

It's time for the Big 12 to go on the offensive, to do something. Stage interesting football games and the rest will take care of itself in time. It's time for the Big 12 to be a Big conference with 12 teams. It's time for the Big 12 to be the Big 12 again.

There was a good one?

No doubt better players want to play in better leagues, but what is different than what is happening now? I don't recall Idaho or New Mexico ever being on the national stage. The scholarships will still be there. I live in Chattanooga. UT Chattanooga has a football team that gives scholarships and that level is lower than UTEP or whoever else you want to mention. It is still good football. I still buy my season tickets...more out of community support than to actually go to games. A good number of weekends I am away to follow the Browns. UTC even places players in the NFL now and again. Tae Davis played for the Browns last year but got cut earlier this summer, so good players get their shot. Hey, Terrell Owens played college ball here. A lot of good players come from "lower" levels of college sports. That won't change.

I doubt that if we are going to talk in a rivalry type of mode. I was more talking about the various sides agreeing to just form their own deal. It might even mean some of the conferences break up with not all members of the current leagues getting invited.

I was in big picture mode. 20 years down the road mode. Probably after you and I have kicked the bucket or at minimum are at the point we don't care.

I agree with you. I don't think anything new will be going on, just more of it.