STILLWATER – You have to hand it to The Athletic and reporter Nicole Auerbach as the reporting on this alliance between the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, and Pac-12 has been spot on. It was first announced last Friday and then since then the stories written have been guessing and projecting what the three major conferences all with fairly new commissioners had in mind with this alliance they were discussing. A source did tell ESPN that the Pac-12 is the drving force in this alliance. "The Pac-12 is driving this,” said the source.
New Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff has said he wants to make the Pac-12 a better football conference and getting schools that really care about their football. He wants the Pac-12 to enhance it’s chances to make the College Football Playoff and enrich it’s league in the next television rights negotiations..
Hopefully, the impending announcement on Tuesday at 1 p.m. (central) will clear up some of that discussion, but the focus from our sources, which come from outside the three conferences, is that they are most worried about governance and the perceived interest in the Southeastern Conference and their commissioner Greg Sankey on becoming the first conference to go to super conference status with 16 teams by eventually adding Texas and Oklahoma.
We should find out more with the announcement. It could also include sharing of resources and playing opportunities, including scheduling, but all of that is conjecture so far. We do know it leaves the Big 12 as a whole, the remaining eight schools out.
The most important aspect of this is whether it impacts any expansion. My sources and some of those have been in contact with all three of the commissioners involved; Kevin Warren of the Big Ten, Jim Phillips of the ACC, and most recent and important George Kliavkoff of the Pac-12; say it will not effect expansion plans. The Pac-12 is set to announce it’s decision on whether to pursue expansion as early as this coming Friday (Aug. 27).
Pokes Report will keep you updated as we have since this began during SEC Media Days with the announcement of Texas and Oklahoma going to the SEC. We have averaged a story a day on realignment stressing that this will be a longterm solution for Oklahoma State.
it is clear.... realignment was not part of the discussion. Not gonna happen.osuokc said:
I don't know, you could read it another way as well. An alliance may work better if the conferences involved are similar on multiple levels, especially if scheduling is involved. With the PAC12 sitting at two fewer schools they could add two to match up.
ACC has 14 schools, 15 if you count Notre Dame, so they could add WVU and be essentially at 16. B1G could add ISU and KU and get to 16. PAC12 could add us, KSU, and two texas teams and now we are at the four 16 team conferences people have been predicting since the last round of realignment a decade ago.
The last thing we should do is add any more schools to the BIG 12, that should be last resort once it is clear there is no other path forward. To jump into that right now would be potentially signing us up for another massive buyout if a P4 invite came.
I agree with you 100%.... but.....osuokc said:
Again, I don't know what will happen and you could be spot on, but still no sense in inviting anyone else until the current GOR is up. There is no more money from the other schools and no need to enter into contracts while the landscape is still shifting a bit.
that sounds good, but you're betting there with house money (past contracts), and we're just about to run out of house money.TUSKAPOKE said:
Time will tell WTH will happen. If no one wants OSU, and the fly-over remnants of the B12, then lets get on with shoring up what is left and go play football and other sports. The B12 is still a Power 5 conference and expand aggressively. Go play the blue bloods and beat their azzes and deliver an exciting game. Get into the 12 team CFP and win. Join this damn "alliance" and neutralize the SEC until they decide to form their NFL model league. If we get in that, great, if not we do not stop playing. Maybe not financially good but we survive. OSU, TT, TCU and KSU can kick most of the PAC12 teams now, half the SEC, B1G and ACC. So, value that, expand with AAC teams, go beat blue bloods, win in the CFP and produce an exciting product. We will survive in some form, recruit about the same kids now and win.
TUSKAPOKE said:
Time will tell WTH will happen. If no one wants OSU, and the fly-over remnants of the B12, then lets get on with shoring up what is left and go play football and other sports. The B12 is still a Power 5 conference and expand aggressively. Go play the blue bloods and beat their azzes and deliver an exciting game. Get into the 12 team CFP and win. Join this damn "alliance" and neutralize the SEC until they decide to form their NFL model league. If we get in that, great, if not we do not stop playing. Maybe not financially good but we survive. OSU, TT, TCU and KSU can kick most of the PAC12 teams now, half the SEC, B1G and ACC. So, value that, expand with AAC teams, go beat blue bloods, win in the CFP and produce an exciting product. We will survive in some form, recruit about the same kids now and win.
