The Pac-12, Atlantic Coast (ACC) and Big Ten meetings announced a “noteworthy partnership” on Tuesday in which the Power Five gatherings and their 41 establishments say they will take a “collaborative approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling.”
Almost immediately, BYU fans started theorizing regarding what sort of an effect the partnership will have on Cougar games, most prominently the football crew. That is on the grounds that as a school football autonomous, BYU depends in booking games against groups from each of the three associations, most particularly the Pac-12.
On the athletic fields and courts, there shouldn’t be a lot of reason to get excited, on account of one specific line in the news discharge conveyed by every one of the three gatherings:
“The scheduling alliance will begin as soon as practical while honoring current contractual obligations,” the release said.
So it doesn’t create the impression that any of the games BYU has scheduled against Pac-12, ACC and Big Ten groups will drop off the radar any time soon. What the union’s arrangement will mean for future planning talks stays not yet clear. BYU’s athletic chief has said the Cougars might want to play the “best competition possible” as a free, which normally implies three to five Power Five adversaries each year.
BYU is scheduled to play five Pac-12 groups this season — Arizona, Utah, Arizona State, Washington State and USC — and one program from the ACC, previous Cougars mentor Bronco Mendenhall’s Virginia Cavaliers. Its seventh Power Five opponent is Baylor of the Big 12, which was curiously avoided with regards to the union.
