Big Ten, Pac-12 Suspend Inter-Conference Partnership

AWWWWWW, RAT FARTS. The Big Ten and Pac-12 had gone and created a really great football scheduling idea, whereby schools in each conference would play each other one-at-a-time in an out-of-conference series lasting until the end of time and leading into the Rose Bowl, but that’s all done with now. “Complications associated with coordinating a football schedule for 24 teams across two conferences proved to be too difficult,” said Big Ten commish Jim Delany in a statement.

For the time being, at least.

I don’t believe this would officially officially be part of the official (official) series, which was supposed to begin leagues-wide in 2017, but more like a getting-to-know-each-other kind of thing.

An Urban Meyer series between Utah and Ohio State would be really something, wouldn’t it? Anyone feeling bold enough to predict Meyer would still be around for one of those beginning in 2016? Still, one of the Big Ten’s premier programs pairing up against the Pac-12’s newest member makes for an interesting matchup.

Notre Dame reaches into the Pac-12 and Big Ten frequently when putting together its schedules, leaving many to wonder how Wednesday’s announced partnership between the two conferences could affect the Fighting Irish’s future schedules. Notre Dame has maintained long-standing rivalries with USC and Stanford, among others, and the guaranteed Big Ten-Pac-12 matchup, beginning in 2017, cuts down on the freedom teams from each conference have when creating schedules.

But not to worry, says Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick. As discussions about the partnership unfolded, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany kept Notre Dame “somewhat” in the loop, and the deal shouldn’t change much for the Irish. Pat Forde explains:

On a conference call Wednesday afternoon, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany explained more details of the two conferences’ new and possibly seismic partnership that Delany termed an “indefinite collaboration.”

The most important details to trickle out concerned the inter-conference football games the two 12-team conferences will set up for 2017 and beyond; that the conferences will wait until then to begin this partnership is partly because they will make their best efforts to honor existing non-conference game contracts. Scott indicated that there will be 12 Pac-12 vs. Big Ten games, but spread over three weeks instead of concentrated on one, and that the match-ups for those games are yet to be determined. Delany added that “competitive equity” will play a part in determining those match-ups, likely a hint that there will theoretically be games between Oregon and Ohio State, for example, and not USC and Indiana. Delany explained that neutral sites in the footprints of both conferences could host games under this arrangement.

The two Rose Bowl conferences, the Big Ten and the Pac-12, announced Wednesday that they’ll put together a partnership including inter-conference scheduling and television network tie-ins. USA Today has the details -- as Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany notes, this is essentially conference realignment without any realignment:

The goal is for every team in each conference to play at least one counterpart per season, beginning by 2017 in football and earlier in other sports. Neutral-site games could be included, making for potential special season-openers in various sports.

On a day when the biggest college football story so far is the release of 2012 SEC schedules, the next two power conferences made a little scheduling noise of their own. The two traditional Rose Bowl conferences, the Big Ten and the Pac-12, are making a move to further tie themselves together, as Pete Thamel reports:

It’s a long time away, so we’ll have plenty of time to speculate on what this might look like. It could be some sort of 12-year rotating system, or perhaps only last for a couple seasons.