What to expect from today's Alliance announcement

The proposed “Alliance” between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 will become official at 2 p.m. ET today. 

While there is a non-conference scheduling component to the agreement, do not expect those details to be fleshed out today. Due to existing contracts and a lack of certainty surrounding the expansion of the College Football Playoff, those details will have to wait. 

Today’s announcement, which will reportedly involve speeches from ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, is largely a confirmation that the three leagues share common principles and will work together in the future. 

“The main thing to expect today is a public acknowledgement of common values between the leagues and alignment around many topics affecting athletes and schools,” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg tweeted Tuesday morning.

Which conferences stand to benefit the most from the agreement?

“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,” Rittenberg added. “Several people have told me the Pac-12 is ‘driving this.’”

The Pac-12, who is at a geographic disadvantage when it comes to television viewers and who has had just two teams make the playoff in its seven-year history, stands to benefit most from the agreement. Additionally, the Pac-12’s media deal with Fox and ESPN ends in 2024, and adding games with these conferences will add value.

The ACC, which has juggernaut Clemson but has lacked a second contender since Florida State’s run in the early 2010s, could use a few more high-level games. 

As On3’s Eric Prisbell pointed out, the ACC is “uniquely positioned” in the Alliance.

“It neither produces the revenue of the robust Big Ten (distributing an industry-leading $54.3 million to each school) nor seeks national relevance like the Pac-12 (which has just two College Football Playoff berths in seven years),” Prisbell said. “And amid a landscape in which multi-billion-dollar media-rights deals fuel college football’s engine, the ACC possesses the media rights deal unlike the others.”

The ACC has a television deal with ESPN through 2036 that pays $17 million to each of its member schools each year. That payout is the lowest amongst the Power Five schools. 

If the ACC can schedule more neutral-site games with teams from the Big Ten and the Pac-12, the idea is to have them broadcast on Fox instead of ESPN.

“The goal is to increase the value of the league without necessarily increasing its size, and creating more premium inventory is a step in that direction,” Prisbell said.

Big Ten in great shape regardless

Of the three conferences, the Big Ten is in the best shape on its own, but the move is a long-term decision. The Big Ten’s media rights deal expires in 2023. From the scheduling perspective, adding premium games with brands like Clemson and USC cannot hurt. 

As previously noted, the scheduling details for the alliance will have to wait.

“Scheduling [out-of-conference] games *could* bring some $ but think of the logistics for ACC teams,” ESPN’s David Hale said. “Some already are scheduled out to 2026-27. If there’s not a serious $$ component to The Alliance & they’d have to buy out at least 1 opp per year, it’d cost teams a few million. What’s upside?”