Mario Cristobal calls alliance a ‘tremendous opportunity’
Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal had nothing but positive things to say about the Tuesday announcement that the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 would band together to form an alliance based on shared principles.
“I think just quickly thinking about it, you’re looking at a lot of opportunities possibly in places where there’s a lot of Oregon Ducks, right?” Cristobal said. “We’ve got Ducks all over the country. This looks like a tremendous opportunity to expand our footprint to continue to expand and elevate our brand, be and go and compete in places we have not been before. Just continue to do things to not only elevate our brand but our conference and college football.”
Cristobal added some commentary on the scheduling component of the new agreement.
“We schedule ambitiously all the time. We’re blessed to have a very powerful brand. I think any time the landscape moves the way it’s been moving, you get opportunities like this to be in an alliance with such prominent programs and conferences and what not, it’s just another opportunity to get our brand out there and elevate it that much more.”
Oregon has a marquee matchup with Ohio State on Sept. 11. Other big, non-conference games on the Ducks’ schedule include Georgia (2022), Boise State (2024), Oklahoma State (2025 and 2026) and Michigan State (2029 and 2030).
Does the Pac-12 stand to benefit the most from the new alliance?
“The Pac-12, of the three leagues, is most engaged on alliance and may make individual adjustments (i.e. reducing 9 league games to 8) sooner than later,” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg reported on Tuesday morning. “Several people have told me the Pac-12 is ‘driving this.’”
At first glance, the Pac-12 certainly has reasons to want to team up with their counterparts to the east. Oregon and Washington have made the College Football Playoff just once each, and the league has taken a nosedive out of national relevance.
Additionally, the Pac-12 is the only Power Five league with teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. They would benefit from playing in the Central and Eastern time zones more often.
Finally, the Pac-12’s medial deal with Fox and ESPN ends in 2024, and adding games with Big Ten and ACC juggernauts in the future, in theory, increases the value of any new agreement signed between the parties.
Many alliance questions remain unanswered
Tuesday’s announcement made clear that the leagues are aligned on common values but left many with additional questions concerning the details and timeline.
The commissioners emphasized existing scheduling agreements will be honored, and Pac-12 commissioner Kliavkoff encouraged teams in his league to continue to schedule high-level college football matchups. He did not, however, clarify if or when the league might drop to eight Pac-12 games or when the formal scheduling alliance would commence.
Further, the Pac-12 is set to announce if they intend to expand the league later this week.