Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
Chip Scoggins, Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — Ding, ding, ding. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the main event.
In this corner, weighing in with 41 schools, a reach of coast-to-coast and a plan fuzzier than black-and-white television, let’s hear it for the Alliance.
And in this corner, the self-absorbed bully who will steal your girlfriend and gloat because it just means more, give it up for the SEC.
This isn’t a sanctioned bout because the NCAA is wandering around the Mojave Desert aimlessly mumbling incoherently about amateurism.
Whew. College sports, man. Crazier than a hound covered in fleas.
The SEC snatches Texas and Oklahoma and their megawatt brands from the Big 12, leaving that conference severely wounded. In response, the rest of the Power Five — Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC – forms an “alliance” ostensibly to prevent world domination through unity.
We get to focus on actual football being played in a matter of hours. Thankfully so, as logic is hard to find in this clumsy preseason power struggle.
The unveiling of this mysterious-sounding alliance suggests that further realignment isn’t in the offing, meaning those Kansas-to-the-Big Ten rumors might not come true. Yet.
Expansion speculation cannot be dismissed entirely, though, regardless of what conferences say publicly. The alliance triumvirate didn’t seal their agreement in a formal contract. Nope, they settled on an “agreement between three gentlemen,” according to Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, in which they promised to trust each other’s word. “We’ve looked each other in the eye,” added ACC boss Jim Phillips.
Did they conclude their meeting with a wink and a pinky swear, too?
The alliance leaders spoke glowingly about their mutual interests and shared philosophy in how college sports should function — and that’s probably all true — but their primary motivation feels like an attempt to prevent the SEC and ESPN from serving as dictators of college football.
So, basically, it’s about money.
That helps explain why the alliance omitted the Big 12 from their club. The Big 12 suddenly is walking a tightrope of uncertainty and can’t offer with any clarity how it will look once the Big Two bolt for the SEC in a few years.
The strength-in-numbers alliance will provide some obvious benefits. The three conferences can have partnerships in scheduling and TV/media deals. They also created a voting bloc to flex their unified muscle on big-ticket decisions, namely in discussions over expanding the College Football Playoff. The alliance will carry a loud voice in determining the structure, rules and timing of the 12-team playoff proposal, which should prevent the SEC/ESPN from running roughshod.
Once news of the Texas-Oklahoma two-step became public, my initial thought was that the Big Ten should look west and extend an invitation to Southern Cal and UCLA. Why not be bold and creative in trying to strengthen its own brand?
Tradition and regionalism have been rendered meaningless in modern day college athletics. That’s still hard to accept sometimes, but conference leaders see gold in new TV markets and ever-expanding geographic footprint.
If the Big Ten found value in Rutgers and Maryland as new frontiers, imagine the attractiveness of the Los Angeles market with USC’s and UCLA’s brand appeal.
The Big Ten is not under any threat of having one of its members poached by another conference. The league’s TV contracts dwarf all but the SEC in terms of revenue distribution. No Big Ten school is going to walk away from an annual payout of more than $50 million and other perks that come with membership in such a historical conference.
Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren apparently has chosen stability over inciting more upheaval by joining the alliance. The Big Ten’s long-standing relationship with the Pac-12 likely discouraged any idea of possibly courting their members, if there even was that thought.
How this whole alliance thing will function beyond scheduling agreements still needs to be explained in more detail. And without an official contract, one wonders if their partnership will survive long term. A gentleman’s agreement might bring temporary calm, but college sports are changing rapidly and chaos never seems too far away.
Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
Eric Gay
There are plenty of options on the table.
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 could simply be trying to gain political clout within college athletics by voting together on key issues such as playoff expansion. Or they could explore revenue-generating ideas such as pooling their media rights packages and a scheduling alliance.
If politics is their main priority, there may be some options available for the Big 12 to still partner with them in some form.
But the Big 12 would feel very lonely if those other conferences decide to move forward with a scheduling alliance that leaves Big 12 teams out of their future nonconference plans.
The possibility of the Big 12 forming a scheduling alliance with the Pac-12 seemed like the most realistic positive step forward for Big 12 members in realignment. If that is no longer on the table, because the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 would rather schedule their own marquee games then what is Plan B?
It’s difficult to say how long a scheduling alliance could take effect, though. K-State, for example, has future home-and-home series arranged with Arizona, Colorado, Rutgers and Washington State as far out as 2031. Asking teams to back out of all those games could be complicated in the short term.
Eric Gay
There are plenty of options on the table.
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 could simply be trying to gain political clout within college athletics by voting together on key issues such as playoff expansion. Or they could explore revenue-generating ideas such as pooling their media rights packages and a scheduling alliance.
If politics is their main priority, there may be some options available for the Big 12 to still partner with them in some form.
But the Big 12 would feel very lonely if those other conferences decide to move forward with a scheduling alliance that leaves Big 12 teams out of their future nonconference plans.
The possibility of the Big 12 forming a scheduling alliance with the Pac-12 seemed like the most realistic positive step forward for Big 12 members in realignment. If that is no longer on the table, because the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 would rather schedule their own marquee games then what is Plan B?
It’s difficult to say how long a scheduling alliance could take effect, though. K-State, for example, has future home-and-home series arranged with Arizona, Colorado, Rutgers and Washington State as far out as 2031. Asking teams to back out of all those games could be complicated in the short term.
Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
Michael Ainsworth
There is quiet optimism across the industry that the College Football Playoff will still expand beyond its current form to 12 teams in the near future, but it is unlikely to happen nearly as quickly as some originally thought.
Could a consolidation of power conferences do more than simply slow the process?
Maybe. The SEC seems content to continue on with four playoff participants with games being played exclusively on ESPN. But the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 might have other plans. Several different TV networks share playoff rights in most pro sports. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is also spread across four networks, not just CBS.
Some believe a conference alliance could force the playoff to let other networks bid on its media rights and drive up the price. A 12-team playoff would be worth more on the open market than a four-team version, so odds favor expansion.
But will they still allow automatic access for the nation’s top six-rated conference champions?
The Big 12 will certainly hope so. If its remaining teams stick together, one of them will have access to the playoff every year. That would help the Big 12 remain a viable conference in some form.
Michael Ainsworth
There is quiet optimism across the industry that the College Football Playoff will still expand beyond its current form to 12 teams in the near future, but it is unlikely to happen nearly as quickly as some originally thought.
Could a consolidation of power conferences do more than simply slow the process?
Maybe. The SEC seems content to continue on with four playoff participants with games being played exclusively on ESPN. But the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 might have other plans. Several different TV networks share playoff rights in most pro sports. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament is also spread across four networks, not just CBS.
Some believe a conference alliance could force the playoff to let other networks bid on its media rights and drive up the price. A 12-team playoff would be worth more on the open market than a four-team version, so odds favor expansion.
But will they still allow automatic access for the nation’s top six-rated conference champions?
The Big 12 will certainly hope so. If its remaining teams stick together, one of them will have access to the playoff every year. That would help the Big 12 remain a viable conference in some form.
Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
LM Otero
It’s starting to feel that way.
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 could still look to expand by poaching Big 12 teams after they form an alliance, but it doesn’t feel like a priority.
Fans can probably give up the dream of a Big 12/Pac-12 merger.
If the other power conferences decide to stand pat, Big 12 teams could respond in one of two ways. The first would be all eight teams secretly working behind the scenes to sell themselves to another conference in hopes of earning an invitation.
All eight of the Big 12’s remaining members would prefer life in another power conference than life in a refortified Big 12 that has been relegated to second-tier status.
But there’s no guarantee such an offer will present itself for any of those eight schools. Kansas or Iowa State to the Big Ten? West Virginia to the ACC? Some combination of K-State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU to the Pac-12? It’s all fun to think about, but it also seems less likely now than it did at this time last week.
The other option: The remaining Big 12 teams unite and try to rebuild the conference via expansion or some type of merger with the American Athletic Conference.
There’s always the possibility this could bring them together.
Adding schools like Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston or UCF would make the Big 12 a competitive league, especially in basketball. But it would not be nearly as profitable as what Big 12 schools have grown accustomed to.
LM Otero
It’s starting to feel that way.
The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 could still look to expand by poaching Big 12 teams after they form an alliance, but it doesn’t feel like a priority.
Fans can probably give up the dream of a Big 12/Pac-12 merger.
If the other power conferences decide to stand pat, Big 12 teams could respond in one of two ways. The first would be all eight teams secretly working behind the scenes to sell themselves to another conference in hopes of earning an invitation.
All eight of the Big 12’s remaining members would prefer life in another power conference than life in a refortified Big 12 that has been relegated to second-tier status.
But there’s no guarantee such an offer will present itself for any of those eight schools. Kansas or Iowa State to the Big Ten? West Virginia to the ACC? Some combination of K-State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Baylor and TCU to the Pac-12? It’s all fun to think about, but it also seems less likely now than it did at this time last week.
The other option: The remaining Big 12 teams unite and try to rebuild the conference via expansion or some type of merger with the American Athletic Conference.
There’s always the possibility this could bring them together.
Adding schools like Boise State, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston or UCF would make the Big 12 a competitive league, especially in basketball. But it would not be nearly as profitable as what Big 12 schools have grown accustomed to.
Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
Conference realignment has not been kind to Bowlsby.
The Big 12 commissioner got caught with egg on his face when he shot down the idea of conference expansion at Big 12 media days, saying that it was no longer a priority for anyone because of the decline in traditional cable TV. And then Oklahoma and Texas were gone the following week.
He bounced back when news leaked about Bowlsby setting up an exploratory meeting with Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, but that now appears to have been little more than a casual chat between colleagues.
Big 12 fans were excited about the prospect of working with the Pac-12 in some form. Alas, the Pac-12 now has something else in mind.
There doesn’t seem to be much internal finger pointing at Bowlsby. Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor staunchly defended Bowlsby in radio interviews last week, saying everyone in the conference was stunned when Oklahoma and Texas decided to exit the league and that he is working his hardest to lead the league in uncertain times.
But he does not look like a proactive leader at the moment.
Conference realignment has not been kind to Bowlsby.
The Big 12 commissioner got caught with egg on his face when he shot down the idea of conference expansion at Big 12 media days, saying that it was no longer a priority for anyone because of the decline in traditional cable TV. And then Oklahoma and Texas were gone the following week.
He bounced back when news leaked about Bowlsby setting up an exploratory meeting with Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, but that now appears to have been little more than a casual chat between colleagues.
Big 12 fans were excited about the prospect of working with the Pac-12 in some form. Alas, the Pac-12 now has something else in mind.
There doesn’t seem to be much internal finger pointing at Bowlsby. Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor staunchly defended Bowlsby in radio interviews last week, saying everyone in the conference was stunned when Oklahoma and Texas decided to exit the league and that he is working his hardest to lead the league in uncertain times.
But he does not look like a proactive leader at the moment.
Chip Scoggins: Clumsy college ‘alliance’ mostly about money while chaos lurks in background
Chris Sweda/TNS
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren speaks about the cancellation of the Men's Big 10 Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on March 12, 2020. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
Chris Sweda/TNS
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren speaks about the cancellation of the Men's Big 10 Basketball Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on March 12, 2020. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS)
