B1G, Pac-12, ACC discussing alliance

No Big 12?

==========
Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC in discussions about forming alliance: Sources (theathletic.com pay site)
By Max Olson and The Athletic Staff August 13, 2021

The Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC are engaging in high-level discussions about an alliance, sources tell The Athletic.

Talks have centered around not just a scheduling alliance in football but in broader cooperation, according to sources in the three conferences. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips have been having conversations for several weeks.

“I’ve been in frequent and regular contact with all of the other A5 commissioners the last few weeks about the complex issues that are facing the industry,” Kliavkoff said, adding that there’s “nothing to report on this specific matter at this time.”

How will an alliance work?
Max Olson, staff writer: While the specifics on how a scheduling pact might work remain unclear, sources in the three conferences suggest the larger goal is alignment so that the Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC can work and vote together on major issues such as College Football Playoff expansion and upcoming NCAA governance changes.

“This is their shot right back at the SEC,” one athletic director said.

All three leagues and their relatively new commissioners are feeling some pressure to respond to the SEC’s aggression after the conference added Texas and Oklahoma as new members starting in 2025. None of the three have expressed serious interest in raiding what’s left of the Big 12, so working together is a logical next step and appears to be the likely outcome.

There are differing beliefs among sources in the three conferences as to how imminently this alliance could be finalized and formally announced. Kliavkoff and Warren were together this week in California for Rose Bowl-related meetings.

What about the Big 12?
Olson: While these plans are still in the works, it does appear the Big 12 will not be included in the alliance. Last week, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with Kliavkoff to discuss potential options for a strategic alliance. The Big 12 is currently exploring options to preserve its future after Texas and Oklahoma exit.

Why would the three conferences do this?
Matt Fortuna, staff writer: On Tuesday the NCAA announced the formation of a constitution committee, with the hopes of expediting a proposed governance model. It is there, in voting power, where an alliance among the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 would really show those three conferences’ power — 41 votes to the 16 votes of the expanded SEC.

New ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who was announced as one of 23 members of the constitution committee, has told ADs that strength comes in numbers, not in one conference stacking the deck. This is where the real difference could come for these three conferences.

The question of timing
Nicole Auerbach, senior writer: Even if such a move is not exactly imminent, there is still pressure to do something in the wake of the SEC's power play.

A formal alliance between these three conferences could be announced with specific scheduling details to be ironed out later. But it would still be valuable to get this out there at some point soon because the three leagues could then work together to vote as a bloc on CFP expansion (timeline and format), upcoming NCAA governance decisions and other pressing issues.
==========END ARTICLE==========

Well, there you have it. The wounded conference is being left behind to fend for itself, with little real interest in adopting any of its surviving members. The other three appear to be proceeding as they are in the belief that the Big 12 will no longer be a power conference to contend with once OU and tu are gone.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, Big 12.

Even should the name survive,, the power conference will be gone.

However...
"None of the three have expressed serious interest in raiding what’s left of the Big 12, so working together is a logical next step and appears to be the likely outcome."

But opting to join a tripartite alliance would not preclude any of the three conferences from adding a university that may be a good fit, especially if it can be one that does not belong to another alliance member.

And silence is exactly what we would expect to hear from any of them at this point.

We know from history that the B1G operates behind closed doors with stifling OPSEC.

We also know from history that the B1G is willing to make an odd numbered conference work short term (when they added Penn State to go to 11 years before adding NU to get to 12) in order to facilitate its long term goals (e.g., expanding their market footprint and impact and the great and continuing desire to include Notre Dame in conference).

The is also the reality that reports are that KU insiders are confident KU will end up in a good position when all is said and done.
And the fact that new KU AD Travis Goff is well connected in the B1G and the ACC (his old Northwestern boss being the new ACC commissioner).


But what if the B1G and the Pac-12 and the ACC go alliance and no one opts to invite KU to join them?

Should KU join the other Big 12 remnants in giving up trying to get into one of the Power 4 conferences and try to add Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston and UCF to get back to 12 while building its footprint in the more populated states of Florida (#3 in population), Ohio (#7) and Tennessee (#16)?

It would be an enticement for WVU to stay, with UC and Memphis being closer than any current Big 12 partners, and the likelihood of them getting into the ACC minimal from all my readings. (UCF would be the same distance as KU for WVU, but easily the longest trips for all the other Big 12 8 ).

Adding Houston doesn't expand the footprint state wise, but it does bring in a large previously unexplored slice of the Texas market, the 5th largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) with 7.1 million people, and with a different allegiance that would be new to the Big 12. And each year over 9,000 of the 47,000+ annual enrollment earn their degrees, building on that alumni and non-alumni fan base.

Though far away from everyone else, UCF is a metropolitan public research university with the largest student body in the nation (71,000+), and confers over 17,000 diplomas EVERY YEAR. That is a rapidly growing alumni base (to go with the non-alumni fan base) to draw on for a school located in the #22 MSA in the country (2.7 million people, over the last decade second only to Austin TX as the fastest growing city of 1 million or more people).

And there is the current reality that as long as the Big 12 exists it contractually has a seat at the P5 table, even if it would be the rumble seat with it's new lineup... at least until the other 4 kick them away.

Me?

B1G, please, sooner rather than later.

Thanks!

Rock Chalk!