Reasons why the PAC-12, Big Ten, and ACC alliance will not work
By Ryan Kay
The alliance could have come with an agreement with revenue sharing among the three conferences, guaranteed future scheduling agreements especially in football, and a plan for conference expansion to compete with the SEC but it didn’t.
Fans were excited about the potential Big Ten vs. PAC-12 football matchups and or a Big Ten vs. ACC football challenge similar to what they have in basketball.
However, instead of Big Ten, PAC-12, and ACC schools making announcements of future non-conference games with one another to combat the SEC from becoming more powerful, this happened.
The hope among fans in the three conferences was to hear about potential games like USC playing at Ohio State, Penn State playing at Clemson, Michigan playing at UCLA, North Carolina playing at Colorado, Iowa playing at Virginia Tech, Miami playing at Oregon, Michigan State playing at Florida State, or Arizona playing at Wisconsin.
However and unfortunately, if you look for example at Ohio State’s, USC’s, and Clemson’s future non-conference schedules, there is not much flexibility to schedule games among the alliance conferences.
The conference commissioners made it perfectly clear that schools within their conferences were encouraged to keep their agreements with schools that they have contracts to play against in non-conference play.
Here are the openings and spots available as well as how many games are scheduled against one of the members from a school in a conference in the alliance for non-conference play and against an SEC opponent from 2022 to 2028. Playing against Notre Dame does not count as they are Independent and not a full-time member in football of the ACC.
Openings in their non-conference schedule: One in 2024, one in 2025, two in 2028
Against an ACC or PAC-12 Opponent: at Washington 2024, Washington 2025, Boston College 2026, and at Boston College 2027
Against an SEC opponent: Texas 2025, at Texas 2026, Alabama 2027, and at Alabama 2028
Openings in their non-conference schedule: One in 2027 and one in 2028
Against a Big Ten or PAC-12 Opponent: None
Against an SEC opponent: South Carolina 2022, at South Carolina 2023, Georgia 2024, South Carolina 2024, LSU 2025, at South Carolina, At LSU 2026, South Carolina 2026, at South Carolina 2027, South Carolina 2028
Openings in their non-conference schedule: One in 2025, three in 2027, and two in 2028
Against a Big Ten or ACC Opponent: None
Against an SEC opponent: LSU 2024, Mississippi 2025, and at Mississippi 2026
The three schools used as an example show that they play more teams from the SEC in their future non-conference schedules than from teams in the other two conferences of their newly formed alliance.
This may be different in men’s and women’s basketball and Olympic sports future schedules but for football, the alliance does appear to help the three conferences financially and does not excite their fanbases with many intriguing non-conference matchups among teams in the other conferences in the alliance.
Finally, the notion that this alliance will work or even will scare the SEC into making another move to combat the newly formed alliance is highly unlikely. There were high expectations going into this alliance and many fans, alums, and supporters of the Big Ten, ACC, and PAC-12 came away from the official alliance news conference as underwhelmed and even disappointed.
This video below attempts to sum up the not-so-well-planned news conference of the alliance and why the alliance fell well short of expectations.