The Handshake Alliance
The Big 10, Pac-12, and ACC (plus Notre Dame) announced yesterday that they have formed an alliance to further balance college football
The college football offseason has been a wild one this summer, beginning with a proposed 12-team expanded Playoff in June; Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC in July; and now an alliance between the schools of the Big 10, Pac-12 and ACC in August.
The Alliance seeks to collaborate not just on football and basketball cross-conference scheduling and their respective postseason formats, but also on mental health, social justice, academia, diversity inclusion and NCAA re-structure and federal legislature reform announced in a press release.
However, similar to the other two big offseason events, nothing is immediately taking place with this new alliance. The 41 schools (the three conferences plus Notre Dame) intend to stick together to ensure they capitalize on making the most television money by scheduling marque games which will not leave them out of a new Playoff format.
The fear is that with the Longhorns and Sooners transitioning to the SEC in 2025, the conference will further their partnership with ESPN, and together construct a Playoff that favors their teams’ inclusion. Potentially getting 50 percent or more of the Playoff participants due to perceived schedule strength and brand bias.
Perhaps the SEC had plans to create a super conference; some have speculated a mini-NFL. Assume the SEC adds Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Penn State from the Big 10; Clemson, Florida State, Duke, UNC and Louisville from the ACC; and Oregon, Washington, Utah, Stanford and USC from the Pac-12. Add in Notre Dame and you have a 32-team super conference that can compete for NFL-esq Playoff spots.
Such a system would be to the detriment of college football. And how are the Big 10, ACC, and Pac-12 commissioners—none of whom have over two years experience in their respected roles—plan to stop this SEC bulldozer?
With a handshake.
"It's about trust," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said. "It's about, we looked each other in the eye. We made an agreement."
Unfortunately, trust doesn’t count in the business world. And college football is one of the biggest businesses out there.
“There’s no signed contract,” Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said. “There’s an agreement among three gentlemen, and there is a commitment by 41 presidents and chancellors and 41 athletic directors to do what we say we’re going to do.”
But without signed paperwork, this means very little in the grand scheme of college football.
Despite what this trio of commissioners would have you believe, this Alliance is very much a reactionary move to Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said, “We live in uncertain times. I wouldn’t say this [Alliance] is a reaction to Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC, but I think, to be totally candid, is you have to evaluate what’s going on in the landscape of college athletics with all the things we are facing.”
Part of that uncertainty is what will happen with the remaining eight Big 12 schools.
“We want and need the Big 12 to do well,” Phillips said. “The Big 12 matters in college athletics.”
Yet, they still were not invited to the party for three reasons: 1) it is too early and uncertain to make a move on the last eight Big 12 programs, especially when they have insisted they want to stay together through at least 2024; 2) these smaller schools in lower tiered markets do not bring enough value from a media rights perspective; and 3) this allows the three conferences within the Alliance to poach the last standing Big 12 schools anyway.
The Pac-12, for example, plans on announcing expansion plans by week’s end.
Future Game Scheduling
The Alliance also notably said that they would not tamper with any existing scheduled games and therefore work to schedule games between the 41 schools—with no formal guiding structure—as they are able to in the future.
The way, way distant future.
That means rivalry games such as Florida-FSU; Georgia-Georgia Tech; Kentucky-Louisville; and South Carolina-Clemson will remain intact for the time being. The Fighting Irish will most likely continue to play both Stanford and USC annually.
Ohio State also has home-and-home scheduled with Alabama, Georgia and Texas; while Florida has a smattering of games against six of the 41 schools scattered between 2022-31. All of which will not be altered.
But if we do get to a point to see this Alliance come to fruition, it would be a major benefit for fans. Finally we will get to see more diverse matchups of Power-5 teams that I have been advocating for for decades.
Oregon vs Penn State; Ohio State vs USC; Iowa vs Miami; Clemson vs Wisconsin; Notre Dame vs Nebraska; UCLA vs Louisville; Northwestern vs Washington; Stanford vs Michigan; and the list goes on and on.
The main reason schools have only scheduled few of these games in the past is because there has never been a championship benefit or incentive for doing so. In college football, a national champion has been crowned first by polls, then by computers, and now by a committee. Marque matchups that increases your chance for a loss are too risky.
That has shifted slightly when the Playoff expanded to four teams in 2014; however, we still see early non-conference losses backfire on teams who take on the scheduling risk.
This is especially notable for Pac-12 teams. In the 2015 opener, Stanford traveled to Northwestern and lost while Oregon lost a heartbreaker to Auburn in the 2019 season opener. Both defeats were devastating to those squads who would ultimately finish as a two-loss conference champion and were excluded from the Playoff.
This Alliance is going about fixing college football backwards. Too much can change in the interim.
The scheduling step needs to be taken; however, it only becomes a benefit once there is a more clearly defined format for crowning a champion. The SEC did one step better by actually securing new game inventory for their future schedules, but still will not realize the ultimate benefits until there is a secured Playoff format.
Until there is, this is much ado about nothing.