According to Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic, the ACC will join the Big Ten and Pac-12 in an alliance with plans to make a formal announcement as early as next week.

Which then begs the question, what exactly is the alliance about?

Per Auerbach’s reporting, it will go beyond scheduling agreements which presumably would enhance their values to broadcasting partners. Auerbach noted that the three conferences, “believe they are like-minded, that they want to continue to prioritize broad-based sports offerings and that the academic profile of their institutions matters, as does graduating athletes.”

The three leagues offer a per-school average of between 22.9 and 24.8 sports per campus. The SEC is just 19.9. There is also a fear that the SEC is aggressively moving its football to a de-facto NFL minor league with player salaries.

What are the possibilities of an alliance. Here are a couple.

It is no secret that the ACC is locked into an albatross of a TV contract. The conference is already behind the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12 in annual media rights revenue, and the SEC is poised to add an additional $55 million per year in 2024 when its new deal with ESPN begins. The Big Ten and Pac-12 will have their deals expire in 2024. TVrev.com has more on the future of sports media rights.

The one Power Five conference that is behind the ACC is the Big 12. It is up for contract negotiations in 2025, but with its recent loss of headliners Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC, that league is facing a significant decline in rights revenue.

What really stings the ACC: it’s deal that already lags behind the other three and will only be exponentially more so in the near future is not up for negotiations until 2036. For some perspective, the SEC’s new deal with ESPN will expire before then (2034). The ACC is looking at 15 years of being significantly behind the other power conferences.

The Big Ten is already well financed with its forward-thinking launch of the Big Ten Network in 2007, 13 years before the ACC began its station in partnership with ESPN, but the Pac-12 is also likely to have an interest in a scheduling agreement that could improve its broadcast rights. Its own network has struggled, and there is speculation that it could shutter under a new deal.

If the three conferences agree to form a partnership of sorts for rights to games, a big if considering there is probably not much upside for the Big Ten to do so, that would be a boost certainly for the ACC and also probably the Pac-12.

It’s been well-reported that a lot of trust has been lost after Oklahoma and Texas bolted for the SEC months after its conference commissioner Grag Sankey was part of a four-person committee that ended up recommending an expansion of the playoffs to 12 teams. Also on that committee was Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, oblivious to the dealings going on behind his back, and Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick.

Swarbrick and Sankey look like big winners of the final product. The SEC is well poised to take numerous entrants into the lucrative playoffs, and Notre Dame is well situated to keep its prized independence in football. That has led to concerns from the three conferences, Auerbach noted.

That’s one example where an alliance between the three could set the agenda going forward. For instance, ESPN is heavily invested in both the SEC and the CFP. Could the other three conferences band together to force multiple TV partners for the CFP going forward?

There is also a stark possibility that the NCAA is on its last leg, at least when it comes to college football. At some point, the power conferences could choose to split off and form its own association to govern at least that sport, if not others, notably men’s and women’s basketball with their lucrative March Madness deals.

Agreeing to form an alliance could ensure that the three leagues take care of themselves if and when that time comes. It could also potentially give a power balance to the SEC, which undoubtedly sports the majority of college football’s biggest brands.

However, that would require 41 different institutions to be on the same page, a tall order.

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