The Alliance Is Announced, Pretty Much Exactly What We Thought

STILLWATER – It is out there now. There is no signed deal, but the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten Conference and Pac-12 Conference are now aligned. More than anything it is a spiritual and philosophical alliance. The three conferences say they believe in the college athletics model, and they want to make decisions together that are best for the student-athletes and for the model of college athletics the way it has been and fight to keep the ideals of college sports across the board.

After the initial announcement the three commissioners of the conferences in Jim Phillips of the ACC, Kevin Warren of the Big Ten and George Kliavkoff of the Pac-12 all agreed they don’t need a contract.

ACC

Jim Phillips is the ACC Commissioner.

“The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 recognize the unique environment and challenges currently facing intercollegiate athletics, and we are proud and confident in this timely and necessary alliance that brings together like-minded institutions and conferences focused on the overall educational missions of our preeminent institutions,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips. “The alliance will ensure that the educational outcomes and experiences for student-athletes participating at the highest level of collegiate athletics will remain the driving factor in all decisions moving forward.”

The commissioners acknowledged there is no contract, there is no timeline and there really are no hard fast rules. This is where philosophy comes in. They said the intent is to schedule football games, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and Olympic sports events between and involving the three conferences. It was pointed out that the conferences already have nearly 100 future games schedule against each other.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said there is no desire to tear up any existing contracts for nonconference games with teams in other conferences just to do new contracts with teams in the alliance. It is more of a promise of working together when it is possible.

The emphasis on student-athletes was apparent and almost flown, maybe subtly flown in the face of the SEC and there is no doubt the alliance was a response of the Southeastern Conference taking Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 Conference.

“Student-athletes have been and will remain the focal point of the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 Conferences,” said Warren. “Today, through this alliance, we furthered our commitment to our student-athletes by prioritizing our academics and athletics value systems. We are creating opportunities for student-athletes to have elite competition and are taking the necessary steps to shape and stabilize the future of college athletics.”

Pac-12 Conference

Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff

“The historic alliance announced today between the Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten is grounded in a commitment to our student-athletes,” said Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff. “We believe that collaborating together we are stronger in our commitment to addressing the broad issues and opportunities facing college athletics.”

Then a little later a reporter asked about money, doesn’t anybody care about the money. The answer in short, yes, they care about the money. It just wasn’t the message they were wanting to get out today.