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ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 Alliance Is Huge – VERY Huge

By klownboy on August 24, 2021 • ( 0 )

Looks like the evil empire has some opposition.

In response to the Southeastern Conference’s (SEC) act of aggression in obtaining Oklahoma and Texas from the Big XII, the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, and Pac-12 announced an alliance today. They focused on issues impacting key topics affecting college athletes and schools in all sports.

What gets me is that officials from those conferences had the nerve to say this alliance was not in response to what the SEC did, but instead is a way to collaborate academically and athletically among some of the country’s highest-regarded research institutions.

Let’s be real about one thing: this WAS in response to what the SEC did.

If that wasn’t the case, why in the hell didn’t the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 do this years ago? After all, most of the colleges in those three conference do align academically and culturally. About 40% of the prestigious Association of Academic Universities members are in those three conferences.

This alliance is about scheduling juicier non-conference matchups in football (and basketball). It is about having a bigger say on governance of the sport. Y’all think that it was a coincidence that neither the ACC, Big Ten nor Pac-12 had any representation on the committee that discussed the College Football Playoff expansion.

Reps from the Big Ten also alluded to the fact that this is not about getting more money from television networks, which is kinda true. However, remember those juicy matchups I mentioned? Those would garner more viewership and make themselves more attractive to TV networks and perhaps streaming services — which would increase their value, i.e. MONEY.

It’s going to be interesting how the dynamics between the SEC and ACC/Big Ten/Pac-12 evolve moving forward, especially given the existing ties between the SEC and ACC (Florida State-Florida, Louisville-Kentucky, Clemson-South Carolina, Georgia Tech-Georgia).

My only question is, if the SEC is the Empire and commissioner Greg Sankey is Darth Vader and the ACC/Big Ten/Pac-12 is the Resistance, who is gonna be Luke Skywalker?