Big Ten AD says alliance with ACC, Pac-12 about more than money
By SDS Staff
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The reported alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 has been primarily discussed by fans and media members through a college football lense. The alliance is viewed as a response to SEC expansion and a way for the non-SEC Power conferences to stick together on matters like College Football Playoff expansion.
Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour recently spoke to ESPN’s Heather Dinich. Barbour discussed how the Big Ten sees itself as “more than just an athletics conference.”
“I do think that there are conferences out there that could bring value from a monetary standpoint, particularly, speaking about our television contract and our television revenues,” Barbour said. “… The Big Ten really prides itself on being more than just an athletics conference, in terms of our provosts get together, we share some library resources, some other academic resources.”
Dinich notes that Barbour cited 40 percent of the Association of American Universities — a group of leading research schools — are members of the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences. The Penn State AD sees “like-minded” peers in the ACC and Pac-12, making the alliance about more than just money.
“I’m not trying to downplay the importance of value as it relates to upsizing our revenues — that certainly is important — but that’s not the only reason,” Barbour said. “And I think that there are some reasons around like-mindedness that would be very valuable to the conference.”
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
