Hunter Willits (left) Austin O'Connor (center), Kaleb Young (right) (photos courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)The Southeastern Conference sure did cause a mess, huh?
About a month after the SEC quietly orchestrated the addition of both Texas and Oklahoma, the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten, and Pac-12 Conferences all countered by announcing a "Historic Alliance" that isn't really all that historic and is more of a handshake agreement among a bunch of rich executives.
The alliance itself focused primarily on football and men's and women's basketball. There will be "a scheduling component … designed to create new inter-conference games, enhance opportunities for student-athletes, and optimize the college athletics experience," according to a release from all three leagues.
That's all fine and good - even a little exciting! - though it remains to be seen what, exactly, will come of this in the long term.
For our purposes here, we're more focused on this line from the release:
"The three conferences will also explore opportunities for the vast and exceptional Olympic Sports programs to compete more frequently and forge additional attractive and meaningful rivalries."
In short, there's a bunch of wrestling possibilities that could come from this. Let's explore.
As it stands right now, the Big Ten has 14 Division I wrestling programs, while the ACC and Pac 12 both have six. The Pac 12 announced in June that it plans to grow and strengthen its wrestling presence, which included, among other things, adding some wrestling members to the league - not unlike what the Big 12 did a few years ago.
One idea is to schedule a series of duals. The Big Ten vs. the ACC + Pac 12. Iowa vs. Arizona State, Penn State vs. N.C. State, Nebraska vs. Virginia Tech, Michigan vs. Oregon State, on and on. Schedule them in late-November, mid-December, late-February, whenever. A few on Friday, a few on Saturday, a few on Sunday. Boom.
You could make some competitions out of it. There's already a Big Ten/ACC Challenge for both men's and women's basketball. Do one for wrestling, too. Then do a Big Ten/Pac 12 Challenge. Then an ACC/Pac 12 Challenge. Fans get into the basketball version, and we know how passionate wrestling fans are. That would be a hit.
You could also strategically schedule a series of triangular meets, hosted at different venues, broadcasted on each network. A quick example:
Any combination of those matchups would make for a hell of a weekend of wrestling, and would boost wrestling viewership across all three networks.
To take that last idea a step further, the matchups could be based on the previous year's results. All three league's regular-season or conference tournament champs could meet for a tri-dual. In this case, that's Iowa vs. N.C. State vs. Arizona State. What a day of wrestling that would be.
None of this is based on any serious reporting. The couple of coaches I talked to didn't have much in the way of answers when asked what this ACC-Big Ten-Pac 12 deal meant for them. Beyond that, there's also the prospect of what all of this means for the Big 12 Conference, since they were conspicuously left out of the alliance.
The ultimate changes in the college athletics landscape that come in response to Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the SEC may not formally happen for a few more years. Things will look different during the '25-26 and '26-27 seasons than they will in the upcoming seasons. The schools and athletic programs will find ways to adapt.
But it's hard not to think of the fun wrestling possibilities that will reveal themselves along the way. This new ACC-Big Ten-Pac 12 deal has some potential to do some great things for the sport, for all three conferences, and everybody involved.
Here's hoping those in power see it that way and react accordingly.
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