A historic and long-awaited alliance was announced between the Big Ten, Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12 on Tuesday. The three groups announced that they will collaborate on an “approach surrounding the future evolution of college athletics and scheduling”.

The plan to form an alliance between the three sports conferences has been in the mix for weeks. It was first acknowledged publicly by Jim Phillips of the ACC, Kevin Warren of the Big Ten and George Kliavkoff of the Pac-12, according to reports from news agency Associated Press.

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Kliavkoff said in a statement, “There is no contract. There is no signed document. There does not need to be”, according to Associated Press.

In July this year, the Southeastern Conference attempted to form a 15-school league by 2025 after inviting Oklahoma and Texas. The move sent shockwaves through college athletics and will leave the Big 12 without its two premier schools in the paydirt sport of football.

The ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 hope its alliance of 41 schools that span from Miami to Seattle leads to stability at the top of big-time college sports and thwarts future realignment.

The alliance is also being formed as the NCAA begins the process of handing off more responsibility to conferences and schools to run college sports and with a proposal to expand the College Football Playoff in the pipeline, according to reports from news agency Associated Press.

The scheduling piece could lead to multiple nonconference football games per season between the league members, creating new and valuable television inventory.

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However, it is difficult to draw up a timeline for that as schedules for non-conference football matches are normally formed years in advance. This results in a tight slate for most school teams for upcoming seasons.

The newly formed alliance between the three conferences has introduced uncertainty in the future schedules. According to reports from Associated Press, a home-and-home series has already been scheduled between Ohio and Alabama in 2027 and 2028. 

Game schedules for basketball are likely to experience the first blow from the new alliance as schedules for the sport are normally formed on much shorter notice.

(With AP inputs)