On Tuesday afternoon, the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that the three conferences were forming an alliance.

The commissioners from each respective league — the ACC's Jim Phillips, the Big Ten's Kevin Warren and the Pac-12's George Kliavkoff — answered questions from the media to discuss what the alliance does and doesn't pertain.

Here are three observations from the announcement.

If fans were expecting the beginning of the foundation of a "super conference" to counter the SEC in ruling college athletics, it was likely disappointed.

This is, at this point, a symbolic gesture. Stability, which is sorely needed in collegiate athletics, was the buzzword between the three commissioners, but actual specifics and mechanisms of an agreement were more notably absent.

The three acknowledged that there is no written, formal contract and professed to not being a need for one. But without words on a paper with expressed intentions, it’s hard to know the endgame of the alliance.

It’s quite possible that these three men, as they claimed, came together after sensing a leadership vacuum in the NCAA, a more than fair observation. Probably more realistic is that they saw the SEC accumulating an alarming amount of power, especially from a revenue standpoint, and decided that if they do not act now in concert, then the future of collegiate athletics as they know it is in trouble.

Hence the urgency to send a signal to others that they intend to take the lead in bringing that stability referenced so frequently, but for now it comes across as a symbolic show of unity more than a strategic partnership intended to yield actual dividends.

If there is one thing that does seem clear going forward: the three conferences will engage in some kind of scheduling arrangement. The possibilities in all the sports not named football seem limitless. The ACC-Big Ten Challenge in basketball can be extended to include the Pac-12, for instance.

In-season tournaments and events in the non-revenue sports have plentiful opportunities.

Very few of that will move the needle as much as high profile football games. And on that front, the commissioners confirmed that it may be awhile before the benefits of the alliance will be met. None of the existing future opponent contracts will be canceled, notably.

In NC State’s case, the Wolfpack is about to complete a home-and-home with the SEC’s Mississippi State that was cut in half due to COVID-19. That was after a home-and-home with the Big 12’s West Virginia that was similarly sliced into a single game due to Hurricane Florence in 2018.

NC State’s other future home-and-homes with Power Five teams are Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt from the SEC and Texas Tech from the Big 12. It also has an arrangement with BYU, which counts under ACC scheduling protocols as a Power Five game, and it has six games spread out through 2037 with Notre Dame.

The earliest that NC State could add a Big Ten or Pac-12 opponent would be 2026, but that year it already has a game at Vanderbilt and home vs. Florida. It would be 2029 before NC State could bring in an opponent from an alliance conference on a yearly basis, but realistically 2032 would be the start date.

In 2030, NC State already has road games against BYU and South Carolina scheduled, and a year later is hosting the Gamecocks and at Notre Dame. Adding another P5 contest in those seasons seem far-fetched.

At least Warren and Kliavkoff acknowledged that a switch down from nine to eight league games in their respective conferences may be in order.

Warren and Kliavkoff were perhaps more equivocal than the ACC’s Jim Phillips about supporting the expansion of the College Football Playoffs (CFP), but all three submitted that they wanted to be more methodical in the deliberations rather than simply fast-track what was submitted earlier this summer, which was a 12-team playoffs.

The bottom line: CFP expansion is still very likely going to happen. It just may look a little different or some of the processes may change.

The one subject Phillips was more equivocal about was voicing his support for a strong Big 12 conference. He stated that college sports needed a “the Big 12 to be well,” which probably does not make many West Virginia fans who hope to see the Mountaineers in the ACC feel good.

Phillips also noted at one point that past conference realignment has tended to lead to trickle down results with multiple switching of league affiliations, and seemed to hint that it his hope that the alliance may be able to prevent history repeating itself.

We should find out soon if that's realistic, however. Kliavkoff has acknowledged that the Pac-12 is considering expansion options and should have an announcement by the end of the week.

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