Dec. 28, 2011
PARK RIDGE, Ill., and WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - With a history of Rose Bowl competition dating back more than a century, the Big Ten Conference and Pac-12 Conference announced Wednesday a collaborative effort to enhance long-term scheduling commitments between the two conferences across all sports amongst the 24 institutions.
The new Big Ten-Pac-12 collaboration will feature more games between the two conferences in an effort to enhance the experiences for all student-athletes, fans and alumni while broadening the national scope of both conferences. Details of the new effort will continue to unfold as administrators and conference staff members meet in the coming year.
"As other conferences continue to grow through expansion, we believe there is great merit in deepening the historic relationship between the Big Ten and Pac-12," said Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany. "We believe that both conferences can preserve that sense of collegiality and still grow nationally by leveraging our commonalities in a way that benefits student-athletes, fans and alumni. This collaboration can and will touch many institutional undertakings, and will complement our academic and athletic missions."
"Through numerous conversations over the past several months with stakeholders from the Big Ten and Pac-12, we decided there would be great value in building upon the history and collegiality that exists between our member institutions, by initially committing to an increased frequency of play between our schools in all sports," said Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott
In football, the objective is to create an annual 12 inter-conference game schedule between the two conferences by the 2017 season. The plan calls for each school to play an opponent from the other conference every year with some flexibility built into the process to respect existing post-2017 FBS nonconference match-ups. Additionally, more inter-conference games are expected to appear sooner based on schedule openings. Many sports, including men's and women's basketball, could see an increased level of inter-conference competition in the near term, possibly as early as the 2012-13 academic year. Over the coming months there will be a series of detailed scheduling planning meetings among administrators of both conferences to work out exact details.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 share culture, tradition, values and a rich history of intercollegiate competition, dating back to the inaugural Rose Bowl Game in 1902. The two conferences have met in Pasadena on 62 occasions, including 55 consecutive meetings from 1947-2001. Both the Big Ten and Pac-12 have strong commitments to diversity, gender equity and the sponsorship of broad-based programs, with over 17,000 student-athletes competing on more than 550 teams between the two conferences.
In addition, the Big Ten created the first national conference-owned television network, the Big Ten Network (BTN), which was launched in 2007 and is now in its fifth year of operation. The Pac-12 will be launching its own television network in August 2012. Both networks will be able to provide national coverage to a number of the inter-conference competitions.
"With where recruiting is going and where conference realignment is going, our long-term partnership with the Pac-12 and the Rose Bowl and the academic missions of both conferences, it make a lot of sense," said Northwestern head football coach Pat Fitzgerald following Wednesday's Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas practice. "You can see the success in basketball with the ACC/Big Ten Challenge and how it's become something that's featured in the preseason for our conferences.
"Coming down the road already we have California and Stanford in our non-conference scheduling. In recruiting we hit the west coast hard, like we do here in Texas, once we leave the Midwest footprint. For us, for our branding and our nation exposure, I think its something that's really important. It'll be tough to win, but that's what's fun. It's what our fans want and what our players want. When we're recruiting, we're going to say, `here's the schedule; if we win these games and we the Big Ten championship, then you have a chance to play for a national championship.' I like the idea and look forward to the challenge," said Fitzgerald.
"The Big Ten and the Pac-12 have a longstanding relationship, most notably through the Rose Bowl, so I think it's great to see the alliance extended across all sports," said Northwestern head men's basketball coach Bill Carmody. "It will be helpful to our program in getting quality opponents on our nonconference schedule to help prepare us for league play.
"We have had great series with Stanford, Arizona State and USC in recent years and we look forward working together with other Pac-12 institutions in the future," said Carmody.
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