Today marked a historic day in the world of college athletics. Three major conferences have formed an alliance. The Big Ten, ACC, and Pac-12 have announced this alliance in a tweet, stating this alliance “will bring 41 world-class institutions together to evolve college athletics.
What does this alliance mean?
In simple terms, this alliance is hoping to impact the future of college athletics. Focusing more on the student-athletes including their mental and physical health, their academics, and equality. This alliance will also impact scheduling for some major sports with inter-conference games. The final bullet point listed in the announcement was “Postseason championships and future formats”. Maybe a hint towards the future of how certain sports handle their championship formats.
College Football Playoff
Although it is well known that this alliance is geared around bettering all athletics. There are certainly some speculation from fans around how this could affect major sports like college football. College football’s 4-team playoff has been a great thing for the game. However, other major conferences have felt neglected in representation in these games. For example, the SEC in some peoples eyes can often be over represented in this playoff. This alliance could either help to push for more teams in the playoff, or sway votes to which teams make the playoffs.
What does this mean for the Badgers?
This alliance does not mean anything drastic for the Wisconsin Badgers. Some things to look out for is schedule changes for some of your favorite Badgers sports. Especially with football and men’s and women’s basketball. Expect to see football matchups with schools from the ACC and Pac-12. In basketball, we already have the Big Ten versus ACC challenge every year, and from now on expect to see more clashes with Pac-12 schools. Lets just hope its not against Oregon, they seem to have our number.
Rebecca Blank, who is the University of Wisconsin Chancellor and the Big Ten Conference Council of Presidents’ Chancellor was quoted in the Big Ten article and had this to say about the alliance. “The Big Ten Conference has always prioritized academic excellence as well as athletic excellence for student-athletes. Today’s announcement reinforces the values of integrity, fairness and competitiveness among all members of this alliance and provides additional opportunities for our student-athletes to enhance their collegiate experience.”
Conference Accolades
Most people know the insanely rich history the Big-Ten has not only with athletics but also academics. However, the ACC and Pac-12 will add a lot of success in this alliance. Some cool statistics worth noting. 34 of these institutions are rated in the top 100 national universities. A combined 1,019 NCAA Championships, and 194 Olympic medals won in Tokyo by current, former and future student-athletes.
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