The rich and powerful leagues will start to regularly compete against each other with the plan envisioned as a method to achieve goals that would have otherwise necessitated expansion. The collaboration involves all sports, but the key changes will be seen in American football. An objective has been outlined to create an annual 12 inter-conference game schedule between the two conferences by the 2017 season. This could see Big Ten giants such as Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin face off against Pac-12 forces such as Southern California and Oregon.
“From my perspective this improves the scheduling and creates more high-profile matchups,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott told the Associated Press. “It gets us exposure into the Midwest and East Coast on the Big Ten media platforms, the Big Ten Network and ESPN. And we hope it brings some rivalries that are rooted in a 100-year tradition of the Rose Bowl.”
Scott has stated the idea came about after the Pac-12 presidents rejected the prospect of further expansion in October. The Pac-12 added Utah and Colorado this year to increase to 12 members, while the Big Ten added Nebraska as its 12th member. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said: “When we looked at models for 14 or 16 teams we couldn't see how we weren't diluted. But we continued to look at ways to make ourselves more interesting, increase our reach, make ourselves more national.”
Over the coming months a series of detailed scheduling planning meetings among administrators of both conferences will bid to work out exact details behind the collaboration. The addition of further marquee games could also boost the conferences’ respective official television networks. The Big Ten Network is five years old and the league also has a television deal with ESPN. Meanwhile, the Pac-12 will launch national and regional conference networks this year, in addition to starting a new US$3 billion television deal with ESPN and Fox.
“Any network...is about distributing content,” added Delany. “The more quality content the network has access to the more it's able to serve consumers. We'll be able to create games that have more meaning.”