What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
With a 24-team College Football Playoff getting closer to reality, we’re getting more intel about what could come next. It begs the question: Is it time for the Big 12 and ACC to truly partner up, or should the Big 12 let the chips fall where they may?
Two new factors have come to light that make the question worth considering.
A True Big 12-ACC Partnership or Nah?
As the 24-team College Football Playoff evolves over the next several weeks and months, it should come as no surprise that the Big Ten and SEC have a plan.
Did anybody think they didn’t have one?
FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt appeared to reveal that plan during an appearance on The Ticket in Dallas earlier this week. During his radio appearance, he told listeners that the SEC and Big Ten already have a scheduling agreement in place should conference championship games go away. He also said it would be announced once the full agreement is signed.
Later that day, ESPN’s Pete Thamel threw some cold water on that, reporting that he had spoken to sources from both conferences who said it wasn’t quite that simple. Many schools have game contracts in place for years with other power-conference programs that could complicate such an agreement.
I’m surprised anyone thinks that’s a major hindrance.
In just the last year, several Big 12 schools have lost home-and-home games with SEC schools as that conference beefs up to nine league games.
One school particularly at risk in any SEC-Big Ten partnership is Oklahoma State. All of its power-conference non-conference agreements through 2035 are with Big Ten schools (Michigan State, Nebraska) or SEC schools (Arkansas, Mississippi State).
You don’t think those Big Ten and SEC schools would buy out those contracts, do you? Of course they would, especially if the scheduling agreement was financially lucrative enough to do so.
The Big Ten and SEC are driving the bus.
We can talk about partnership and collaboration all we want, but that’s the truth. They’ve been in charge since everyone signed the memorandum of understanding on the playoff two years ago. That MOU gave the two conferences significant control over the future CFP format.
So what’s the Big 12 to do? Partner with the ACC?
That’s the likely play.
But maybe it’s not as obvious as it first appears.
Gauging a Big 12-ACC Partnership
A partnership is certainly feasible, especially if SEC and Big Ten teams start canceling agreements because of a scheduling partnership of their own.
The Big 12 and ACC would need those games because each league requires its teams to play a power-conference non-conference opponent. It works nicely for the entire Big 12, although two ACC teams would be left out because the ACC has 18 football-playing members, plus Notre Dame’s scheduling arrangement.
Still, that’s manageable.
The Big 12 and ACC could approach it like the old Big 12-SEC Challenge in basketball and draw up opponents year-to-year to give their television partners the best possible matchups.
That could become even more valuable if conference championship games disappear.
The sponsors probably aren’t thrilled about losing those games. But a Big 12-ACC football challenge could turn those non-conference games into events for both leagues.
Heck, create a “Big 12-ACC Football Festival” at a neutral site. Play three games over three days, build events around it and let the sponsors get maximum value.
It’s something Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips should consider if their conference championship games go away.
But there’s a new question looming.
Enter the ACC Four.
The ACC’s Biggest Brands Want Options
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger did a great piece earlier this week on Miami, which was undefeated entering this weekend and among the best teams in the country.
University president Joe Echevarria is unhappy, most notably with the perception that his Hurricanes are a “second-tier” program in the CFP structure.
Miami nearly won a national championship last season and has maxed out the revenue it can generate in the ACC, he said. Meanwhile, the league’s television contract runs through 2036.
The Protect College Sports Act would cap conference expansion and potentially require power-conference schools to spend five years as independents before joining another league.
Echevarria told Dellenger, “You cannot lock us into a conference.”
He and several other ACC schools aren’t happy about proposed caps on conference expansion, the independent route required to change conferences and, frankly, being told what to do.
In Dellenger’s article, Echevarria openly discussed the possibility of Miami football going independent, although he expressed significant concerns about what that would mean for the school’s other sports.
The schools with the most clout in the ACC — Miami, Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina — are also among those pushing for more flexibility.
The quartet has written to legislators in Washington, D.C., asking that the cap for power conferences be raised to 22 schools, ostensibly giving them more options if they eventually want to leave the ACC.
Echevarria called the current provision “illogical.”
On a certain level, he’s right. And he’s clearly planning for potential pathways.
Miami is already a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), a status afforded to many of the country’s top research universities and one that has historically mattered to the Big Ten.
The funny part is that Texas Tech is reportedly pursuing AAU status, which would potentially make it a more attractive candidate for the Big Ten.
But that’s a conversation for another day.
Should the Big 12 Wait?
If you’re the Big 12, do you really want to enter a long-term partnership with an ACC that could eventually lose its biggest brands?
Consider this scenario.
The Protect College Sports Act passes, but it doesn’t immediately take effect. Most legislation has a set effective date.
That’s potentially a window for a school like Miami to say “screw it,” leave the ACC and hope the Big Ten wants them.
Or Miami could go independent.
And if Miami makes a move, do Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina eventually follow?
Losing those four schools would decimate the ACC’s value.
Then the Big 12 could find itself partnered with a conference of diminishing value.
How does that help the Big 12?
Aside from creating more games for television partners in a potential expansion scenario to 20 or 22 teams, I’m not sure it does.
Adding Miami or Florida State adds value to the Big 12.
Adding Syracuse doesn’t.
When I first started writing this piece, I was on the side of a Big 12-ACC partnership.
Now?
With the ACC’s biggest brands looking for a way out — or, at the very least, looking for more control over their own futures — a partnership with the ACC suddenly has far less value.
If I’m the Big 12, I’d wait.
