Around the Big Ten

[Hannibal]

I'd like to see us compromise and play ND every other year. That way, every student gets to see ND at home once.

[Jamie H]

Screw it. I say don't play them anymore. This isn't the late 80's/early 90's when ND was a top 10 team almost every year. They are no better than the top Pac 12 teams.

If ND wants to make it on their own, let them do it. Right now they make it on their own easily because the B1G and Pac 12 teams schedule them every year.

If they lost UM, MSU, Purdue, USC and Stanford from their schedule, their schedule would be crap.

[lineygoblue]

If they lost UM, MSU, Purdue, USC and Stanford from their schedule, their schedule would be crap.

Careful, Jamie. They can always fall back on playing all three military academies ....

[Tony G]

I bet they'd get a few SEC schools (Tennessee would love to go back to SB) and big east schools as well. ND money spends as well as anyone elses

[UMStan White]

If ND loses those teams, they add four cupcakes and have the same shot as Boise State and TCU except as ND they get into the title game. ND is only irrelevant because they can't put together a championship streak. Play cupcakes and all of a sudden ND is back on top Baby!

[entropy]

The SEC won't leave the south to play ND. If the BIG says no more, they will look to the BIG12

[Dr. Strangelove]

I think this is a great move, a significant move, and am really happy about the arrangement. Glad they're backing away from the 9-game conf schedule to make it happen.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Also...probably not a coincidence they announce this same day the SEC (and ESPN) reveals their 2012 schedules

[hack]

This sounds great. Many of you are in a much better position to understand the ramifications. Presuming some copycat behavior, what are the odds this coaxes the SEC out of the south? I'd love to see those bastards play in snow, but even if some sort of tie-in with a cold-weather conference happens, the games would probably be in September.

[Jeff Buchanan]

What the PAC12 /B1G agreement signals is the emergence of organized interconference play as means of replacing the difficult to negotiate and costly (to the elite program) deals like Michigan made with UCONN. It's likely that the OOC schedules will still have local (like WMU for M) contests but we'll not see the elite programs traveling (like M agreed to do with UCONN).

Beyond that, I think the agreement sets the stage for the collapse of the BCS at the end of its run and when the contracts expire in 2014. Pundits don't think it is going to survive. There is some leverage here gained by the B1G and the PAC12. I expect the SEC and the B12 to follow with a similar arrangement (say the ACC and BE respectively). If all the conferences move in this direction - enjoying interconference alliances - this simply ramps up their collective bargaining power. Somebody said it already ...... if the PAC12/B1G don't like a newly proposed BCS deal embedded with network deals, they have the weight to simply say, "F' it. We don't need it." ..... and they truly won't.

[lineygoblue]

if the PAC12/B1G don't like a newly proposed BCS deal embedded with network deals, they have the weight to simply say, "F' it. We don't need it." ..... and they truly won't.

Exactly. If they don't like whatever is put up after the BCS expires, they can pull out, and have the Rose Bowl in their back pocket. Anything that doesn't include the B1G, the Pac 12 and the Rose Bowl will be a sham.

[WM Wolverine]

AQ status won't survive after the BCS contract expires; instead we'll move to bowl-tie ins with conferences which is pretty much what we currently have without the special provisions for ND & the non power conferences to get BCS bowls...

Found it very interesting the B10/Pac 12 would like to create a new bowl to play each other too. I like the aspect that it puts programs together 'similar in strength.' Meaning M will get to face USC, Oregon more often and not Utah, WSU & Arizona.

[SeanB]

Anything that doesn't include the B1G, the Pac 12 and the Rose Bowl will be a sham.

Right now, most supporters of the SEC would laugh at this, and they'd have the evidence to support it, too. I hate the BCS as much as anyone, and I can't stand the crowing of the SEC, but until another conference wins a so-called "championship", most fans outside of the B1G/PAC12 won't care all that much.

[entropy]

Sounds like Nebraka will lobby hard for the 2017 game to be vs CU..

[entropy]

Published: December 28, 2011

Pac-12, Big Ten form 'collaboration'

By Gene Wojciechowski ESPN.com

Careful not to use the E-word (expansion) or R-word (realignment), the Pac-12 and Big Ten announced Wednesday that the two power conferences have agreed to a "collaboration'' that, if successful, could have far-reaching ramifications for both leagues.

Beginning as early as next year, the Pac-12 and Big Ten will initiate what amounts to a Friends With Benefits alliance. In short, the two leagues are going to significantly reconfigure their future football, basketball and Olympic sports schedules to feature games between their combined 24 member schools.

It isn't a merger, but the cleverly constructed "collaborative effort'' (as the official press release describes it) provides the Pac-12 and the Big Ten with some of the benefits of expansion without the mess of exit fees, litigation and the loss of historical rivalries. And from a strategic standpoint, the arrangement could broaden the geographical, television and brand reach of both conferences.

"Rather than go down the road of just trying to add members, we thought this was a way to keep who we were and an increased value for everybody,'' said Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany. "It doesn't mean you can't expand one day. It seems to us this is an intelligent way to get stronger and do so with zero collateral damage.''

Added Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, "It's a flexible approach to achieving some of the benefits of expansion without dealing with some of the other structural issues.''

Delany and Scott didn't mention other conferences by name, but clearly the defections involving Big East, Big 12 and Mountain West programs in recent months helped prompt the talks of an alliance. Those discussions first began in August, coagulated during the early fall and were officially green-lighted by Pac-12 and Big Ten presidents during a November meeting in San Francisco. This month in New York, athletic directors and administrators from both conferences began working on a scheduling plan for games.

The details remain fluid, but the probable first phase of the partnership would include increased Pac-12 vs. Big Ten games in men's and women's basketball, as well as in Olympic sports. Those changes will begin in the 2012-13 academic year.

The scheduling transition in football will be slower because of existing nonconference contract commitments. But by the 2017 season, the two leagues are expected to have a full 12-game Pac-12/Big Ten schedule in place, meaning each Pac-12 team will play a separate Big Ten program on an annual basis.

"We've obviously explored the possibility of going beyond 12 [teams],'' said Scott. "I've been a believer, philosophically, of that if it made sense. Now I don't see us expanding anytime in the foreseeable future. A lot of what we can do through collaborating with the Big Ten will help us accomplish some of the same things.''

From a football perspective -- and football drives the financial bus in intercollegiate athletics -- the alliance will improve the nonconference schedules of Big Ten and Pac-12 programs. It gives each conference marketing and recruiting entry into large population and media centers of the country. It also provides added content and product for the Big Ten Network as well as the soon-to-be-launched Pac-12 Network, which begins programming in August 2012.

Former Illinois athletic director Ron Guenther, now a consultant with the Big Ten, helped to first frame the concept of the consortium. The two leagues had kicked the tires on expanding their own conferences, but either couldn't find a suitable partner (as was the case with the Big Ten) or chose to reassess plans to increase membership (as was the case with Pac-12 presidents).

Instead, Delany and Scott settled on a plan that makes them quasi-national conferences without forgoing regional ties.
"It's another way to maintain who you are,'' said Delany.

Translation: Ohio State-Michigan isn't going away, nor is Cal-Stanford. But the nonconference schedules will get more muscle mass, the value of the leagues could increase and it opens up all sorts of Pac-12/Big Ten event possibilities.

According to Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis, the future event list could include multicourt and multigames between Pac-12 and Big Ten teams at Dodger Stadium, the Rose Bowl, Ford Field in Detroit or Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Madison Square Garden also remains a possible venue, as do other NBA arenas, such as Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"If we told [MSU basketball coach Tom] Izzo we were playing a game on the moon, he'd ask, 'What time does the shuttle leave?''' said Hollis.

Hollis said the scheduling philosophy of "Anybody, anywhere, anytime'' is a no-brainer for the Pac-12/Big Ten partnership.

"I'm a believer that kids want to play in the big games,'' he said. "I think that's going to do nothing but enhance the situation for both leagues.''

The trickle-down effect of this new alliance will be fascinating to monitor. Will other conferences consider similar arrangements? Will it delay future conference realignment? Will it cause Notre Dame, which has rebuked Big Ten membership advances in the past, to look at the league as a "national" conference and rethink the university's independent status?

However it shakes out, the landscape of college athletics has been altered once more. But unlike the messy divorces involving the Big East, no threats or lawsuits were involved.

"It just seemed like the perfect time, with all that's going on," said Scott.

How about that? Two conferences that actually like each other.

Gene Wojciechowski is the senior national columnist for ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7393687/partnership-pac-12-big-ten-benefits-expansion-legal-mess

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