The SEC and the Big Ten will work together to form an advisory group: What might alliance mean over college sports?
The two biggest conferences in college sports are working together to solve the biggest problems the business is facing.
The leagues said the goal is to “take a leadership role in creating ways to ensure the long-term sustainability of college sports.”
University presidents and athletic directors will be part of a joint advisory group that will be formed by the Big Ten and the SEC on Friday.
It will talk about recent court decisions, lawsuits that are still going on, and ideas for government, and state laws.
The news pretty much makes official a working relationship between the two leagues that has been growing since Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti took over last year.
Thirty-four of the 134 FBS schools will be in Petitti’s and Greg Sankey’s leagues when the 2024 football tournament starts. “We are aware of how our situations are similar and how important it is to deal with the problems we both face right away.”
As a pointed note, the advisory group will “engage with other constituents as necessary.” Many league administrators have been frustrated with the NCAA’s slow and reactive behavior in the past.
But the announcement on Friday wasn’t meant to be seen as the first step toward leaving the NCAA. There is a lot of work between these leagues and the national governing body that it does.
She said in a statement, “The Big Ten and the SEC have a lot invested in the NCAA, and there is no doubt that the voices of our two major conferences are important to governance as well as reform efforts.”
The Big Ten and SEC said on Friday that they will work together to create a joint advisory group to deal with the “significant challenges” that college sports face.
The NCAA is having a hard time keeping track of intercollegiate sports because of all the changes that have put the long-standing amateur model at risk.
“We recognize the similarity of our circumstances, as well as our need of tackling the comparable obstacles we face.”
“The Big Ten and the SEC had substantial investment with the NCAA and there is no question that the voices from these two conferences are important to governance and other reform efforts,” Big Ten chief Tony Petitti said.
Presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors of universities will be on the advisory group. The announcement says that athletes and “other constituencies” will have to be included as needed.
It has not been decided who will be in the advisory group. There are a lot of problems that the leagues mentioned when they decided to work together, such as “recent court decisions, pending litigation, a patchwork of state legislation, and complex governance proposals.”
“There are similar cultural as well as social impacts on your student-athletes, our institutions, as well as our communities due to the new collegiate athletics environment,” SEC chief Greg Sankey said.
“We don’t know the answers to all the questions we have to answer.” We won’t always agree, but making it easier for people to talk to each other between conferences will help us focus on solutions that make sense.
In Friday’s announcement, it was made clear that the body “will not have the power to act on its own and will only be a consulting body.”
Still, this is the latest step by the two biggest conferences in the country to get involved in making decisions about the future of college sports. During the 2024–25 school year, the Big Ten will have 18 schools and the SEC will have 16.
At the same time that the future of athlete pay has become a central issue, both conferences are also signing huge new media rights deals worth thousands of millions of dollars per year.