‘Today is a special day.’ Big Ten joins alliance in college athletics with Pac-12, ACC
Penn State and the rest of the Big Ten will be aligning itself with two other Power-5 conferences moving forward. Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner James Phillips, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren and Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff announced an alliance between their three conferences Tuesday afternoon.
The alliance, which does not include a signed contract, was unanimously supported at all 41 member institutions of the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12, per a release from the conferences.
The conferences intend to work together moving forward on a wide array of issues pertaining to college athletics, most notably College Football Playoff expansion and scheduling non-conference games between the three conferences, along with collaborating on social justice, gender equity and the future structure of the NCAA.
“Today is a special day,” Warren said. “I think what it does is signify that there’s a lot of goodness in college athletics.”
The scheduling component for football will include “additional attractive matchups across the three conferences while continuing to honor historic rivalries and the best traditions of college football.”
Men’s and women’s basketball will add early and mid-season games along with annual events that feature matchups between the three leagues. No timeline was announced for the scheduling component.
Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour emphasized the appeal of working with “like-minded” universities after she was asked Saturday about Oklahoma and Texas agreeing to join the SEC.
“I think this is different from some of the other expansion periods that we’ve experienced,” Barbour said. “... I do think there are conferences out there that could bring value from a monetary standpoint, particularly speaking about our television contract and also from our television revenues, but you all know the importance to us and the Big Ten around the concept of like-minded institutions. The Big Ten really prides itself on being more than just an athletics conference.”
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 2:28 PM.
