How the new B1G, ACC, Pac-12 alliance affects Ohio State
By Ryan Stano
The Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 have announced their long-awaited alliance today. Here’s what it means for the future of Ohio State athletics moving forward.
We knew that some sort of conference alliance was coming between the Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12. We just didn’t know what that meant or what it entailed. Now that the announcement has been made, we know what that means a little more, as well as what it means for Ohio State athletics.
In a statement released by all of the conferences, the three conferences announced their alignment with each other. It will include scheduling with football, men’s and women’s basketball, and Olympic sports as well. They also commit to share academic resources as well.
As far as how this affects Ohio State and its athletic program, there are a few interesting things. Men’s and women’s basketball would add three games in the middle of the season. That would mean Ohio State could face Duke, UCLA, or some other big-time program more often.
In football, nothing will really change for a few years. Most of the scheduling is already planned out for the next several years, so the Buckeyes likely won’t add or subtract any opponents for the next five or so years. What is interesting is the commissioner’s response to the proposed CFP expansion.
If three of the five commissioners in major college football can’t agree on expansion, then it won’t happen. It seems like they might want to keep it at four for now, especially with the SEC adding Texas and Oklahoma. They don’t want the SEC getting more teams in the Playoff.
As for Ohio State football, substantive changes won’t happen for a while. None of the commissioners committed to poaching members from the increasingly dead Big-12, so nothing will change there. This also isn’t a contract between the conferences. It’s strictly a gentleman’s agreement.
It looks like basketball will be the first sport really affected by this news. Until we see how that plays out, I don’t really know what to think of this. I guess this just makes the competition for Ohio State ultimately better in all sports, but to what degree is unclear.
Next. Four biggest things to watch for Ohio State Football. dark
This is all still in the infancy stage. If anything else comes out about this, we will update it accordingly. I encourage everyone to read the full statement in the link above as well.