The entire college athletics landscape has drastically changed over the past few weeks. Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC, and now the ACC, Pac-12, and Big Ten are forming an alliance of their own. This alliance will bring 41 schools together in hopes of innovating the future of college athletics. 

In a statement released by the ACC, the alliance is said to be a “collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling,” that will aim to, “create new inter-conference games, enhance opportunities for student-athletes and optimize the college athletics experience for both student-athletes and fans across the country.” The universities view this alliance as a way to aid student athletes with their mental health, physical health, academic support, social justice and gender equity. 

As of now, there is no plan to realign the three conferences, but the alliance will allow for better non-conference schedules that will lead to marquee matchups. With the potential College Football Playoff (CFP) expansion, these conferences hope that more meaningful and competitive games can improve their strength of schedule, and give them a higher chance of making the CFP over the competitive SEC. This alliance will not only affect football, but other sports as well. According to the statement released by the ACC, the plan for women’s and men’s basketball is to have “early and mid-season games as well as annual events that feature premier matchups.”  

The scheduling process for the alliance will be conducted by the athletic directors representing the three conferences. All three conferences understand that scheduling decisions may take some time due to the schools’ current and future obligations in regards to their scheduling.  

The new alliance will not only benefit the schools, but also the fans. The future schedules will provide new and exciting match–ups from across the country. The competition will bring a new level of excitement to the fans, and it will still allow teams and conferences to be able to play schools from other conferences. 

It may seem that college athletics are taking on a whole new form, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. Alliances like these will now allow for more anticipated games while helping benefit athletes outside of their sport. Lastly, the alliance will incorporate hundreds of millions of dollars in direct support of student-athletic scholarships.