The alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 will be announced at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, sources told ESPN.
The three leagues are expected to emphasize “common values” and unanimous support impacting key topics affecting college athletes and schools in all sports. Sources say the Pac-12 has been the most aggressive of the three leagues in forming and encouraging the alliance.
When news first broke of a potential alliance earlier this month, a Pac-12 source told ESPN that the league was a bit further along than the other two in building support and enthusiasm for the pact. Other sources in the league expected an announcement to come sooner.
Another source familiar with the discussions on Tuesday told ESPN, “The Pac-12 is driving this.”
New Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, who declined to comment Monday night to ESPN about the announcement of the alliance, has been clear in his mission to improve football in the league. Kliavkoff has said he has been focused on enhancing access to the College Football Playoff and ways to boost football revenue, especially as the Pac-12 prepares to renegotiate its media rights agreement. He also told the San Jose Mercury News that the league will decide in the next few weeks whether it will explore possible expansion.
The gist of the alliance — which a source said is in response to the shifting landscape of college athletics, but not necessarily a direct counter to the SEC on its way to becoming the first 16-team superconference — is an ability to collaborate academically and athletically among some of the country’s highest-regarded research institutions.
The bottom line is that there is no immediate or direct impact today on college football.
“The impact now is a look towards and an excitement about the future and what this will mean,” a source told ESPN.
Tuesday’s alliance announcement will not include widespread football scheduling principles among the three leagues, sources said, as many game contracts are set for several years out. There is also a desire to see what a potential expanded CFP model looks like before adopting new scheduling strategies.
Teams from the three leagues are expected to start scheduling more games with one another, and individual leagues could make adjustments to their scheduling models. One possibility would be for the Pac-12 to reduce its number of league games from nine to eight, which would free up teams to play opponents from other Power 5 conferences, such as the Big Ten and ACC.
But across-the-board scheduling approaches won’t come just yet. The Big Ten and Pac-12 announced a scheduling agreement in December 2011 that was set to begin in 2017. But the agreement ultimately fell apart on the Pac-12 side.
“We cannot repeat history,” a source said.
ESPN’s Heather Dinich contributed to this report.
