Reasons why the PAC-12, Big Ten, and ACC alliance will not work
By Ryan Kay
It was made perfectly clear that there is no legally binding agreement among the three conferences when they announced their alliance.
PAC-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff stated in the news conference that, “The historic alliance announced today between the Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten…” and he and others are referring to the alliance as a historic alliance and in my opinion, is an inaccurate description of the alliance that was formed among the three conferences.
However, as the old saying goes, “The paper is only worth the words written on it.” Without any legally binding contracts between the three conferences, there are no guarantees that this alliance will last and or work.
It makes little to no sense that if the Big Ten, PAC-12, and ACC commissioners were very serious about this alliance, they would sign a legal document holding all three conferences accountable for upholding their end of this new alliance and everything that it entails.
However, during the news conference, the commissioners made it perfectly clear that no contracts were signed among the three conferences and that no contracts to make the alliance official would be signed in the future.
Kliavkoff made it perfectly clear when he said, “There’s no signed contract, there’s an agreement among three gentlemen and a commitment from 41 presidents and chancellors and 41 athletic directors to do what we say we’re going to do.”
An agreement among three people and a commitment among 41 school presidents and athletic directors is not going to stop or prevent one of the three conferences from doing something similar to the SEC and expand without honoring the “gentlemen’s agreement”.
The Big Ten for example can add two schools like the SEC in the near future if it feels it will give them a competitive advantage against the SEC.
Actions speak louder than words and as much as all three commissioners praised one another and are committed to the newly formed alliance through their words used during the news conference, without any type of legal agreement, what is realistically stopping any one of the conferences from removing themselves from this alliance? People don’t get married without signing a marriage license, professional athletes don’t refuse to sign contracts with a team they agree to play for, so if all three conferences are 100% serious of committing themselves long term to this alliance, why not sign an official document stating that they are committed to this alliance?
Notre Dame during the pandemic season of 2020 agreed to play a full slate of conference football games in the ACC conference and following the end of the season decided that they were going back to being independent.
In fairness to the Fighting Irish, they made no promises or commitments to play a full slate of conference games in the ACC for the 2021 season. In their defense, they are playing five teams from the ACC this season.
However, Notre Dame has no reason to fully commit to joining the ACC conference for football because they have no legal obligation to do so. The Fighting Irish will do what is best for them in the future and so will the Big Ten conference because they are no legal contracts preventing them from doing so.
The PAC-12 and ACC need to hope that the Big Ten stays satisfied with the alliance and not remove themselves from it after the expansion of the college football playoffs has been formalized.