Facing a rapidly shifting landscape in college sports, the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12 have agreed to work together with the goal of creating stability during a volatile time.
10 deals. Yes, he's out, man. Okay, welcome. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. We're going to get started here momentarily but I did want to go through just a couple quick reminders if possible, we would request that everyone please go ahead and stay on mute until it is your opportunity to ask questions the way we're going to uh structure today's press conferences. We will have opening statements from each of our three commissioners followed by a question and answer portion. When we get to that question and answer portion. I'll be glad to provide some instructions on how we will go about making that happen. I would also like to let the group know that we are recording this both from an audio and a video perspective. So we will have those files to share later. It's now my pleasure to introduce the three commissioners who will each give a formal opening statement before we ask any questions. Let's start with the Commissioner. Jim phillips Commissioner. The floor is yours. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you all for your interest and for taking the time to join us today to discuss our groundbreaking alliance. First, I want to thank Commissioners warren and clear of cough for their partnership, transparency and commitment during our discussions over the last month or so. We never could have reached this point with our without our collective engagement, shared values and open and honest communications similarly, I also want to acknowledge our chancellors presidents and athletic directors who have been instrumental in getting us to this point. Their leadership Is 2nd to none. Our discussions centred on the unprecedented environment within college athletics today and how best we together could address the challenges ahead from the potential significant changes to the structure and governance, to the impacts of the Austin decision and the implementation of name image and likeness, from enacted and potential state and federal legislation to the postseason in college football. There are simply many critical discussions to engage in and decisions to be made in the coming months and years that will shape college athletics for decades. And we believe that together along with our colleagues across the country, we can help play a formative role in both. What became clear from our conversations is that our institutions shared values, interest and a genuine and dedicated commitment to the overall educational missions of our world class institutions, collectively Are 41 schools are aligned in our emphasis on educational outcomes and I'm providing first class experiences for our students who elect to participate at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics in America. Our everyday commitment to more than 27,000 student athletes within our three conferences will only be enhanced by this new alliance, allowing us to more effectively advocate and work constructively with all other conferences to achieve the best possible balance of education competition and commercial activity driven by the best values of higher education as I'm sure you read in our news, reading our news release while motivated by our shared interests and common desire to help shape the future of college athletics. We are also driven by the exciting potential of a football and women's and men's basketball scheduling partnership as well as unique collaborative events for our olympic sports. We know that in the years ahead our student athletes, alumni and fans will benefit from thrilling new matchups which will create new rivalries and excitement within our alliance. The relationship With the Big 10 and PAC 12 conferences runs deep in our frequent non conference competition across many sports As well as through our acc big 10 women's and men's basketball challenges, field hockey and softball challenges as well as our curtain current bowl game partnerships from a longer term perspective, we are bullish on the scheduling alliance as it will elevate the national profile of all of our teams by playing from coast to coast with college fans across the country as the beneficiaries. The combination of national games and having a national impact and influence are key elements of this collaboration and do help create a degree of certainty in an environment that has become increasingly unstable. We recognize that there is still work to be done and decisions to be made regarding future scheduling frameworks. We are grateful to the 11 members of our athletic director Subcommittee who will focus on the specific areas of scheduling for consideration on behalf of the We are truly honored to be enthusiastic member of this alliance and look forward to the possibilities that lie ahead. And once again my sincere appreciation to commissioner is worn and clear of cough and our ceos and A. Ds for their leadership and support. Thank you Commissioner phillips. It's not my pleasure to introduce Big 10. Commissioner Kevin Warren. Yeah good afternoon thank you Jim thank you for your words. It's really been a pleasure to work with both you and George and to be able to to discuss issues that are pertinent to college athletics. And I feel so strongly now that to have people in this industry leaders at the sea and the PAC 12 that we've been able to communicate with to deal with a lot of issues in college athletics. When the Big 10 had their first meeting at the Palmer House, only a few blocks away from where I sit here today in downtown Chicago. They came together with the vision to really build a conference to be able to provide unique opportunities to their student athletes from an academic standpoint to an athletic standpoint and to be able to work with George and Jim. And this alliance with our respective conferences is really special. And I just want to thank all the media members who over the years who have covered the A. C. C. In the Pac 12 and the Big 10 the stories that you've told the hard work. The commitment to excellent that you all have shown. We really do appreciate it. And also would like to thank all of our chancellors are presidents or athletic directors. Our faculty athletic representatives are senior women administrators. Are head coaches are assistant coaches. Our student athletes and also our fans today is a special day. Think what it does is signifies that there still is a lot of goodness in college athletics and this is an opportunity for us to come together in a strong alliance to work together not only with the A. C. C. The Pac 12 and a big 10 but also other conferences in college athletics. But there's turbulence right now in college athletics there are things that we need to address. We need to have strong leadership we need to work together and I'm looking forward to having an opportunity to work with Jim and George and our respective leaders on our campuses and in our conferences to figure a lot of these issues out. And also to work with our other conferences around college athletics. But there's a lot of work to be done this last year has been monumental in college athletics but also it's provided us with an opportunity to look forward To come together and hopefully this alliance will will really stabilize the different issues that we're facing in college athletics. It will provide opportunities for our student athletes again to not only to get a world class education at one of our 41 institutions but also to provide them an opportunity to play just in some epic matchups. And I look forward to working with everyone from a football scheduling alliance, from a women's and men's basketball scheduling alliance and also in creating ways from an olympic sport standpoint that we all can work together. But again, I think we have to keep in mind what brought us to this day, What brought us all to college athletics and that is the student athletes. We need to make sure that we have shared values, We keep academics first, we keep our integrity and honor and collaboration together. And I look forward to not only the coming days, the coming months, but also the coming years and the impact of us forming this alliance will have on college athletics as we look over the horizon. So again, uh jim George and all of the people in our various campus campuses. Thank you for being leaders. Um thank you for working together. Thank you for being honest with each other. And we look forward to working together with you with our bowl partners with our network partners to figure out ways that we can make college athletics even more special. That has already has been So with that I'd like to turn it over to George and George and jim again, I look forward to working with you all on a regular basis. Thank you. Commissioner Warren and again, it's my privilege to announce pac 12 Commissioner George Poliakov Commissioner the floor is yours. Thank you amy I want to start by thanking my fellow commissioners as well from the big 10 gym and Kevin along with all of the presidents, chancellors and athletic directors from each of our three conferences who have come together to make today's alliance announcement possible. Well, more substantive and complex issues have emerged in college sports In the last three months than in any other similar timeframe in history. The Austin decision state and federal legislation, the CIA's gender equity review report the future structure of the N. C. A CFB expansion and of course conference realignment. The foundation of college sports is in many respects and turmoil, but these matters while challenging. Also present once in a generation opportunities for the leaders in college sports to reevaluate longstanding ways of conducting our business, hit the reset button and come together to make a positive difference in the future evolution of college sports. Despite the shifting landscape, there are some critical constants among many in college athletics And specifically among everyone of the 41 member institutions In our three conferences. Yeah, these constants include resolute commitment to our student athletes, a commitment to both academic and athletic excellence and a commitment to protecting that which makes college sports so special for our student athletes, alumni and fans. The intersection of these constants and the opportunities afforded by all the disruption are the reason we have come together in this alliance today is an historic moment, but it is the very beginning of a long journey of collaboration is now upon our three conferences to begin the real work that will make a difference and to begin leading the discussion that will bring concrete positive changes, both on the macro critical matters before college sports and with regard to enhancing our inner conference schedules for the benefit of our student athletes, alumni and fans, I want to thank my fellow commissioners once again and Jim kevin and I will be happy to take any questions. Thank you. Gentlemen will now transition into our Q and a portion of today's press conference. Please go ahead and use the raise hand function as part of the conference call and we'll get to as many questions as possible. We're going to start with Dennis Dodd Dennis floor is yours? Yeah, thanks guys for doing this for all three I guess. Do you support the college football playoff as proposed? Um, and why or why not? At this point? Thank you Dennis. Let's go ahead. We'll start this one with commissioner phillips and then we'll go from there appreciate the question Dennis. Um, and I think, you know, the last couple years where we had a group of individuals take a look at a proposed new alternative. They did excellent. They did excellent work of providing an analysis and an option for us to consider. And I think as we all got together in Dallas in june the idea was that we were going to spend the rest of the summer until the third week of september when we reconvened socializing the playoff. What did we like about it? What what did we have issues with it? Did it make sense? Too many games? Um what did it do to the bowl structure in the bowl system itself? And so uh certainly from an A. C. C. Standpoint, we haven't made a final decision about where we will fall. We want to take the whole entire period In order to really vet it thoroughly. And like I'm sure has happened with the Big 10 and the PAC 12. We started at the ceo level. We've gone to the HDs, the SWS F. A. R. S. We've gone to the student athletes, the coaches to collect as many data points as we can in order to give the best assessment and re possible. So that's that's where we find ourselves in the Dennis, Commissioner Warren. Yes, Dennis, thank you for your question. Thank you for joining. And just thank you for your hard work and and covering um college football in college athletics. I'm a big believer and uh and uh and expanding the college football playoff. But also I'm a big believer and being methodical and doing our homework. One of the things that I promised uh in our last CFT meeting is that we would do our homework and I've had an opportunity to talk to, well over 100 individuals At our big 10 footprint. I mean we've talked to all of our football head coaches are athletic directors. Many of our student athletes are chancellors and presidents and and we'll be talking to our faculty athletic representatives and our SWS and just gathering feedback. And so I think we need to be very methodical as we make decisions because this will impact our student athletes and so we need to think through, you know, the length of the season, health and wellness issues, not only physical but also mental, primarily the academics. How does this impact final exams? Um you know, we're in the midwest were in cold weather climates, we need to make sure our stadiums are winterized. How does this impart packed our network partners? All of these different issues need to be reviewed, analyzed and assimilated. We're still working on that. Now. I'm looking forward to our meeting in september, but again, the committee led by Greg spanky and and Craig Thompson and Jack Swarbrick and bob supposedly did an incredible job. They spent hours upon hours of looking at these different issues. So we're still unpacking this information. But I do think whenever a decision is made, we need to make sure that we have an inclusive voice, we need to make sure we keep our student athletes at the center of all of our decisions, do the right thing by them. And I am confident and not only in jim and George, but also all of our other brethren around college athletics and and that will make the right decision and do the right thing at the right time And it's uh I appreciate the leadership of Bill Hancock and his staff with the C. F. P. They've done an outstanding job. So these uh, the future will be interesting as we work through what is the right thing to do for our student athletes and for the game of college football. I'll just briefly add that the PAC 12 is 100% in favor of expansion of the college football playoffs Um that there are issues at the margins, although I'll repeat what Kevin and Jim said, which is the work that was done by the committee to come up with the 12 team playoff is exemplary. There's a lot of really really good stuff in there, but we're going through a process as as both of my colleagues mentioned. And for me that means condensing my visits to every single school So that they're terminated by September 2028. So I can get face to face feedback from everyone of our universities. I was in boulder Colorado yesterday, I'm in eastern Washington today and uh we're all doing this work so that by September 28, we have very good feedback to provide back to the broader committee. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Pat 40. Thanks gentlemen for whoever can answer this. There are obviously some, some big ideas here, but there's not much in the way of a timeline. I understand that that could be a bit of a moving target but can the word I've seen is whenever it's practical, when can we at least give some rough ideas? What is practical in terms of scheduling uh football games, basketball games, women's basketball games. Commissioner Warren, can we start with you for this one please? Sure Pat, good to hear your voice. Yeah. And one of the things we have to keep in mind is that we already have uh some existing relationships between the A. C. C. And the pac 12 and the Big 10. I mean starting with basketball and we have an A. C. C. Big 10 challenge with the pac 12. We have a volleyball relationship that we've been able to build with them. And then from a football standpoint you think about September 11 this year we have Oregon who will be playing at Ohio State and Washington will be playing at Michigan I believe between 2022 and 2035, they're already 68 games that are on the schedule from a football standpoint. And and that's not including even Notre dame in that number. I think if you include Notre dame, it's 103 games. So a lot of existing games already on the schedule. What this allows us to do is to focus on um the existing games that we have, how do we couch those, how do we build storylines around those, How do we expand those schedules? That I think one thing to keep in mind is that we've promised each other is that we're not going to interfere with any existing contracts that exist. So this is not about getting out of contracts and blowing anything up. This is about honoring those existing contracts, but also building relationships between these three like minded conferences as we look forward from a scheduling standpoint, not only in football, but in women's and men's basketball, and also an olympic sports. And to see if there's opportunity to build early season, mid season, uh, tournaments or are unique games that will come together. So as I think Jim has said in his comments and George said it, you know, we're really at the beginning stages of this, but the beautiful thing about this, we have some of the brightest minds in all of college athletics, uh, in our athletic departments with our athletic directors and also are leaders on campus. So to be able to get in the room now over these next couple of weeks and months and start rolling up our sleeves and going to work to figure out how this will come together is exciting. I mean, we know the, the elements are there, We have the willingness to work together. We will work together and I think you'll see some really exciting opportunities for our football, basketball, both men and women in our olympic sports, student athletes as we start unpacking the scheduling component of this Commissioner clear of cops. Do you have anything to add? Nothing to add Kevin and I are 100% online on this. As I know Jimmy's as well. Okay, okay. We will take our next question from dan walkin. Yeah. Hey guys, I'm curious what kind of document has been signed or will be signed to formalize this alliance? How will it be legally enforceable? And will it include any language that prevents one league in this alliance from poaching members of another league? We'll go ahead and start with commissioner clock off for this. There's no sign contract. There's an agreement among three gentlemen and there is a commitment From 41 presidents and chancellors and 41 athletic directors to do what we say we're going to do If there is any lack of specificity in the press release. It's because we want to make sure we could deliver 100% of what we promised. So we're aligned in how we want to approach this. But there is no contract. There is no sign document and there doesn't need to be commissioner phillips or Commissioner warren. Either of you want to react. I think George said it. Well, no great. We will transition to our next question, which will be Lane Higgins, Lane. Hey there, this one is primarily for George, but anyone can chime in. Obviously one of the biggest pieces of college sports, we've seen is this, um, push for maximizing revenue from tv and obviously having these big nonconference marquee games is big, but also getting into different time zones is important. Um, could you speak to, you know, how this impacted the thought process and the decision making and you know, forming this alliance and how much that, you know, is increasingly important now that the sec is adding to members that are, you know, large eyeball getters in college sports. Mhm. There may be residual benefits from this alliance related to increase revenue opportunities, but that wasn't the focus of why we did the alliance. We did the alliance to protect the collegiate model to work together on these important issues and to create unique new opportunities for our next generation of student athletes and our fans and alumni who want to see these great games that will be able to create. So we weren't focused on revenue when we were creating the alliance. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Kirk Bulls. Yes. To any of the three gentlemen. Uh, I'm curious, uh, if you all fear for the survival of the big 12, once the expansion goes through and is that bad for the future of college football and athletics, we'll go ahead and uh, Commissioner Warren, do you want to start this one? Sure, Thank you for the question quite naturally, you know, speaking for us in the big 10 and, and um, and I'm sure George jim feel this way, I have the utmost respect for Bibeau's lee, the commissioner of the Big 12, uh he's been a great leader in the Big 10 at Iowa and in the pac 12 at stanford and also with the Big 12. So I'm confident that under bob's leadership, that he will do what's best for his conference. And again, you know, a lot of these uh these issues that we've been dealing with, our our issues that have have been uh on the table here for really weeks and and and not months and so Lot of this stuff is fresh and new, but I'm sure Bob will will uh we'll figure things out and will do what is right for the big 12. There are a lot of fine institutions in the big 12, not only from an academic standpoint but from an athletic standpoint. And so I think as as you know, situations like today, by announcing this as we said, and I feel very strongly about hopefully this will bring some much needed stability in college athletics. And I also think what it will do is now, it will allow people to understand where everyone else stands because some of the events over the last couple months uh have have kind of shaken the foundation of the beliefs of college athletics and so hopefully this will allow other conferences um to be able to kind of work through their various issues and and figure out what's best for them in the future. But again, bob has only had an incredible successful history and I'm confident that he'll figure out what to do With with his leaders in the Big 12 and and on behalf of his student athletes, let me jump in as well. I think Kevin said it. Well, Let me put it directly, we want and need the big 12 to do well, The Big 12 Matters in College Athletics. The Big 12 matters in Power Five Athletics and our FBS group. And so I can just tell you that will be watching what occurs here. And obviously this transition isn't supposed to be taking place for another four years. But this group in particular will be very interested to see what happens and to do everything that we can to try to make sure that again, college athletics athletics look similar to what it is today about the numbers of opportunities, the commitment to one another, the support of one another during really difficult moments which we're faced with right now. Mm, thank you. We will take our next question from David thiel. This is for all three. Given your intent not to blow up any current scheduling contracts but add more games among your three conferences Is college football moving to a regular season where the power five autonomy 5 play only one another. I can start by saying there's no intention as part of the alliance about increasing the number of games that the football teams play during a regular season and there is no intention to stop our teams from being able to within the alliance also scheduled games against any other conference um that they want to schedule games against, they'll have flexibility and games that they'll be able to schedule and it's our hope that they continue to schedule games against other power five conferences and uh other conferences, Division one as well. Thank you. We'll take our next question from Andrea Edelson. Hi everyone, thank you for doing this uh for all three if if I could if the finances weren't really the sole focus and there has been a lot of discussion about the sec pulling further ahead financially. Um what is this alliance specifically going to do to to help that if the finances aren't something that you guys are focused on, I'm happy to jump in? I would say, I don't think anyone said we aren't focused on finances. I would, what I said was that that's not the driving issue that caused us to form the alliance. Obviously everyone wants focused on finances and focused on doing what's best for all of their schools and will continue to do that. I think the creation of these inter conference games across all time zones with interesting new matchups provides all of us the opportunity to think about how that benefits our schools long term mr Warner mr phillips, I think, I think George, I mean said it well, so I think the biggest thing is for us to start uh as far as what's the right thing to do. And I think what this does is it allows us to lean into certain academic issues, mental health and physical wellness issues, health and safety of our student athletes, gender equity issues, social justice. Um it allows us to take a look at, you know, all of those things that we're facing now on a daily basis that impact our student athletes. And quite naturally it allows us to create compelling matchups and like I said, not only in football, but men's and women's basketball and other olympic sports and and do things from a preseason standpoint in mid season, we just will work through a lot of different ideas. And one of the things we're fortunate to all have great media partners. Um, and just with the changing climate and in the media landscape on just linear television and and from an O. T. T standpoint, there will probably be some unique opportunities, but one of the things that we promised ourselves is do the right thing for the right reasons for the right people. And that is for our student athletes. And in doing so, I think it would be very clear that that other unique opportunities, not only from a media, but from a business standpoint will be created, but for for the for the right reasons at the right time, but but today is really, you know, is a signal that three strong conferences have an opportunity who have shared values and and uh and to be able to work together and who want to prioritize the things that we feel that are important in college athletics at this point in time, I would just add one other element because I think both George and kevin answered your question well Andrea, but at times we we understand the financial piece and it usually is the driver of a lot of decisions. And I can speak to you directly in the sense that this was a time that we felt we had a responsibility to stabilize of volatile environment to focus in on the things structurally that we have to do if we want to see college athletics, not only survive, but Excel and that is new govern instruction, Alston, what we're faced with with the transfer portal, etcetera and so sometimes it can't be driven by money, sometimes it has to be the fundamental components of the enterprise that you fight for, that you have a responsibility for and that ultimately you're committed to making sure that at last for the next generation of student athletes And this is too important to too many student athletes across the country. 500,000 or so. The collegiate model though imperfect is a place that allows access and affordability to a group of young people that may have never access higher education wherever have had a chance to pay to go to college. Thank you. We will take our next question from Bruce Fells Feldman. Thanks amy question for you guys just from earlier about there being no sign document. I mean, jim you just talked about stabilizing a volatile environment. I mean, what do you say to people who listen to that and you think, You know, I mean, I've talked to some big 1280s who I felt like the big 12 is a stable have been for the last decade to have no sign document. You have 41 different schools. Obviously there's something that are going to have seemed to have more leverage than others who would, you know, to think that there is no sign document that this alliance isn't very binding at all. Um how do you, I guess, how do you ensure people feel like this is actually has some strength where you don't think somebody's going to pull an end run or do something outside the alliance to better their own specific situation? I'd say this Bruce, it's about trust, it's about, we've looked each other in the eye, we've made an agreement, we have great confidence and faith are board chairs have looked each other in the eye and is committed to the same level of support and connection to one another, are athletics directors have done that and so if that's what it takes to get something considerable done and you know, we've, we've lost our way of course binding contracts sort of a purpose. But at this juncture that to us wasn't a critical element of it. And we'll certainly see where all this goes. But but I know what we discussed, we all know what was the we discussed and we're very confident about executing on all that's been described today Bruce good to hear your voice. And again, I think it's a great question and and even though I'm a lawyer, I mean, but one of the things that one of my most favorite law professors at Notre Dame would say that uh if you have to go back and look at the contract that you signed, you probably enter to deal with the wrong parties. And I think what that says is our contracts import absolutely they're critically important. But where we are in college athletics right now, uh what we really need is things to be stable. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. I mean, you look at the N. C. A. Going through the Constitutional convention review and we have N. I. L. We have Austin, we have C. F. P. Expansion, We have the gender equity, you know issues. I mean, we have many, many issues that we have to deal with and especially conference realignment. And so we just felt that we could look each other in the eyes, shake each other's hand to say that we have a fiduciary responsibility to the past student athletes are current student athletes in the future. Student athletes, uh, to be able to do something that is right, you know, for once, uh, and to really work together And I can speak from experience. My father was a student athlete in the 40s At Arizona State University when fought in the World War, came back and finished his degree. Uh, my brother was a student athlete in the 60s at Stanford. I was a student athlete in the eighties and my son is a student athlete right now in michigan state. So just speaking from experience, That that whole essence of college athletics has run through my family all the way since the 1940s and it gave people who look like me an opportunity to go to college, to be able to compete athletically, to get multiple degrees, uh, to be able to learn about teamwork and honor and faith and camaraderie and integrity. And so I'm a big believer that there sometimes in life that you need to be able to work together and do what's right for the right reasons. And I think what this shows today, even to our current student athletes that adults can come together, can work together, can keep their word and do what's right for the younger people who are looking up to us. So it's been a proud moment to be able to work with jim, to be able to work with George should be able to work with all of our campus constituents to come together. And let's say, let's do something that's well needed at this point time. Show some leadership, all of the other cou governments will, will come at the appropriate time. But I think today and the next couple of months will really be about making sure that we're organized, that we create some stability. And in this enterprise of college athletics, that has been good to so many people, many of you who are who are in the media, you were blessed to be college athletics but participate in college athletics. But I know speaking from, from where I sit and and the impact of being a student athlete has had on my family and still has on my family to this day. I will forever be grateful uh, to this environment of college athletics and we'll do everything that I possibly can with these two men and other conferences for us to be able to work together as we look forward and leave a lasting legacy that we know we have a responsibility to our future generations to do what's right at the right time for the right reasons. You know, today, today is a press release, but it's also a commitment and it's a commitment among 41 institutions and I would say what my parents taught me, which is um, don't measure me by what we say, measure us by what we do over the coming months and years and decades. And uh, I couldn't be happier about the alliance and I'm okay with there not being a signed contract, we didn't even focus on that, didn't even talk about that. We'll take our next question from Adam Rittenberg. Hi guys, just thanks for taking the time. I'm just curious of all the factors that may have motivated this discussion and the ultimate alliance. How much was the S E C s expansion with texas and Oklahoma in that process? How much did that factor in whether it didn't at all or or did at some point when you guys were putting this together? I'll answer that to start Adam, Good to hear your voice. I have great respect for the sec, I have great respect for Greg spanky and his leadership. Um I would say one of the most powerful mentors in my life was Mike's live who was uh sec commissioner before Greg who helped train Greg. Um You know, Mike had an important just roll in in my life. My son is an sec graduate, um he received undergraduate degree from Mississippi State University before he became a grad transfer to michigan State University. And so um even as late as yesterday, you know, we have weekly calls with a five commissioners and bob and Greg and George jim and myself were on the phone call. Um so we communicate regularly um and quite naturally I I think what the sec had an opportunity and and and and accepting texas and Oklahoma to their conference. Um I think what that did is that that allowed all of us in college athletics to to make you maybe take a step back and take a step forward to really start evaluating what will the next 1357, 10, 15 years look like in college athletics. I mean quite naturally because we're in this business, we're always aware of conference realignment. I mean the Big 10 has grown over the last couple of years by having individuals from other conferences joined. So that's always there. But I just think um uh you know, from, from, from where we sit, we have to be aware as far as what's going on. I mean, even one of the things that we learned from covid last year is that we live in uncertain times. So I wouldn't say this is a reaction to texas and Oklahoma joining the sec. But I think uh to to to be totally candid is that you have to evaluate, you know, what's going on in the landscape of college athletics and and uh but with all the things that we are facing, which we've talked about on numerous occasions and where we really are, uh this is a year for seismic shifts and I think it's really important to make sure that you are aware of all these different things going on and make sure that from our individual conferences that we do all we can to make sure we protect our conferences and, and uh, and build strong relationships to make sure that we protect our, our student athletes. I would also just add adam, appreciate the call in the history of college athletics. One expansion of a conference has usually lead to another to another and to another and to the three of us, we felt the stabilization of the current environment Across the Vision one and FBS in power five in particular. This was his chance for a new direction, a new initiative that I don't think has ever been done before and felt that that was the most appropriate step at this current time and we're proud of it. We really are and, and I think we all believe this is the right step In order for all of us to move forward at a critical juncture. Again, when you talk about a new governing structure, the 21st model of the n. c. a. Alston, we're all dealing with that. So we're better together then we are separate. But I think you have to have a group that that really understands that expansion doesn't mean you end up changing membership across multiple conferences in a significant shortened period of time. Thank you. We're going to take two more questions. The first one here is from Nicole Auerbach. Yeah, this is just a quick question about that football scheduling piece that is to come for George and kevin to make this work. Would you need to go down to eight conference games, Nicole, good to hear your voice and you always ask uh appointed questions. I mean that's one of the things that we we uh we'll have to address at the appropriate time because as we said one, we promise that we're going to keep all of our existing um, contracts and games are in order. Well, as you are aware, some conferences have a games um where a conference that has nine conference games. So all of those different issues, you know, which which we knew were on the horizon over these last couple of years. Now with the scheduling scheduling allowance. Um they're put on the table now, they will have to address those two to make sure that we're able to expand the relationship with the uh, the pac 12. So that's one of the items that we definitely will be working with through our our leaders in our conference. That's one of the reasons why I'm so excited about having a former coach and athletic director, Barry Alvarez from Wisconsin joined our conference office because he now will be an asset to all of us here to be able to work through from a coach and administrator and leader standpoint. But those kind of issues that will be dealing with over the next, you know, weeks, months to years as we look forward to building the scheduling alliance together, We have a contractual commitment through the end of our media rights term to play nine conference games. Um, so to move to fewer games sooner than three years, we need to have a partnership with ESPN and Fox to do that. Although I think there's a compelling argument that the games that we could replace those with if they were in the alliance would be very compelling and and worth making that move sooner. But we'll work through that with our media partners and with our alliance partners. Thank you. We'll take our final question from Ralph Russo. Thanks amy and Good afternoon gentlemen, um, uh, interested in something of a timeline of this and I guess I would ask who brought this up first, You know, whose idea was this initially to get the ball rolling Jump in there. It was, I think three motivated commissioners that felt that this was the time for us to come together and do something that we felt collectively was the right thing at the right time. The timeline per se. Um, it's been over the last month or so that we've um, literally been married to one another and and connected more maybe than we have been to our spouses with the time and effort and, and commitment. We've had to being together both in face as well as through normal means of communication And as far as the execution of it moving forward, it begins now, it begins today, we have a wonderful group of 11 athletic directors that represent the three conferences that have had a chance to meet several times already and and push this thing ahead. And I think the one thing we all appreciate and understand is the practitioners, the directors of athletics, they're going to have to execute this and it's going to have to work And we have 41 unique schools and so it may work sooner for some schools in some leagues before it does for all. But again, I think we're all bullish about being able to really execute on what we've described today. Well said, Mhm. Thank you all, gentlemen. We appreciate your time today and your leadership on this alliance. We appreciate all of our participants for joining us in the attendees as well. We hope you have a great afternoon and thanks so much. No, thank you all, thank you for your time. All right, thanks George jim.
