Matthew Mathias

Sports Editor

mcm5909@psu.edu

On Tuesday, August 23, an alliance between college athletic divisions was made that will shake up the collegiate landscape. Paul Finebaum announces that the deal pertains to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten Conference, and the Pacific-12 Conference. According to the three leagues, this collaborative pact was made in order to best meet the projected future conditions of the college athletics climate and evolve alongside it. The commissioner of the PAC-12, George Kliavkoff, explained the deal in a statement provided by ESPN: “We believe that collaborating together we are stronger in our commitment to addressing the broad issues and opportunities facing college athletics.”

This move follows breaking news from Texas and Oklahoma as they announced that they would be leaving the Big 12 Conference and join the SEC by 2025. When this becomes final, the SEC will become the first sixteen-team “super conference” to exist in NCAA history. Many conferences are approaching contract renewal dates with television and other media companies. With this in mind, it has been important for these college football divisions to align themselves in the most profitable way possible in order to optimally compete with other conferences.

As it stands, the announcement will have no direct impact on college football just yet. Teams from the allied conferences have prior contracts and scheduling requirements that will limit their ability to schedule with each other for at least the next few years. In addition to football, women’s and men’s basketball will also be affected.

As far as Penn State is concerned, their future schedules will be impacted as well. Instead of having eight to nine conference games in a season, they may now have one or two fewer so that they are able to compete against teams from the newly aligned conferences. Penn State fans should be excited for the foreseeable future, as classic rivalries such as the one that exists with the University of Pittsburgh may once again be reignited for years to come. Spectators will be able to settle the debate year after year which school dominates the state.