It wasn’t really all that long ago when the Big Ten and the Pac-12 worked out an agreement to play a full slate of conference-vs-conference matchups in the regular season. This was back in 2012 when the foundation of the college football landscape was undergoing its first real seismic shifts, and the idea of a Big Ten vs Pac-12 scheduling arrangement was viewed as a move to improve the marketability and attractiveness of media rights partnerships. Unfortunately, that agreement never was able to move on to the next step of being rolled out after the Pac-12 opted to back away from the concept.
But good things come to those who wait, and the commissioner of the Pac-12 now seems to think games against the Big Ten’s membership could start being organized as early as 2023.
“We’re ready to do that now,” Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff said at the Sports Business Journal’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, according to 247 Sports. “The moment after [the Big Ten] can get there, we’re playing 12 games the following season.”
Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff said Pac-12 would reduce league football games from 9 to 8 “tomorrow,” if Big Ten would do same. “But (Big 10) not ready to do that yet.” If so, the leagues could start scheduling alliance – similar to ACC/Big 10 hoops challenge, Kliavkoff said
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 9, 2021
So, according to the commissioner of the Pac-12, the ball is supposedly in the Big Ten’s hands right now. The biggest hangup on moving forward with a crossover plan is the conference schedule being set at nine games. Because non-conference schedules are filled up years in advance, the quickest way to begin adding Big Ten-vs-Pac-12 game son the schedule is to cut one conference game from the schedules of Big Ten and Pac-12 teams. And the earliest that would seemingly be feasible would be with the 2023 season.
The Big Ten will review potential options for future scheduling at their next meeting in January, But that will just be one step in the somewhat complicated process. Figuring out how to best schedule a conference-vs-conference slate when one conference has 14 members (Big Ten) and the other has 12 (Pac-12) means two schools have to be on the sidelines. Where to play those games to allow for an even playing field for all to benefit is also a concern.
And what about the ACC?
The ACC has previously joined the Big Ten and Pac-12 in the so-called alliance in response to the latest expansion move made by the SEC to add Oklahoma and Texas. The ACC, with 14 members, could make for a much more striaght-forward conference scheduling agreement with the Big Ten, and could perhaps be more beneficial overall for both conferences. the ACC already has an eight-game conference schedule, although a number of ACC schools have annual rivalry games with schools from the SEC that are far more important to those schools than any forced matchup with a BigTen school.
For now, the momentum is fixated much more on bringing the years-long concept of a Big Ten-Pac-12 scheduling agreement to reality. And we could be fairly close to seeing it unveiled. All that is needed is the right decisions by leadership in place to make it happen. We’ll see if that is the case.
Your take!
What do you think about the formation of a Big Ten-Pac-12 scheduling agreement? What schools do you want to see added to Penn State’s future schedule as a result? Leave your comments on this story in our brand new comment section down below to join the conversation! We may highlight some of your comments in a future post.
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