On Friday, the Big Ten and Pac-12 announced that the collaboration created by the two conferences in December will have to be dissolved due to football scheduling conflicts by several teams in the Pac-12. Starting in 2017, the proposal would have had the two conferences play 12 games per year, with the central focus of the deal being a round-robin football schedule.
However, teams in the Pac-12 were concerned about having to play a daunting schedule of that nature and the heads of the conference voiced the concern to the Big Ten in March.
Now, the deal is suspended.
Via ESPN:
"We are disappointed to announce today that the Big Ten/Pac-12 strategic collaboration announced jointly in December 2011 unfortunately will not be consummated," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. "We recently learned from Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott that the complications associated with coordinating a nonconference football schedule for 24 teams across two conferences proved to be too difficult. Those complications, among other things, included the Pac-12's nine-game conference schedule and previous nonconference commitments.
With the partnership dissolved, the Big Ten will potentially increase the amount conference games from eight to nine.
Jim Delany in May: "If we hadn’t done the collaboration, we’d do 9(-game league season). If we do the collaboration, we’ll do 8"
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) July 13, 2012