Pac-12, Big Ten Change Course, Postpone Football Scheduling Agreement

In a disappointing turn of events, the Pac-12 and Big Ten have found it "too difficult" to schedule a 24-team, round robin schedule that would extend into the infinite future.

Blog: Pac-12, Big Ten cancel their scheduling agreement. Sigh. (Statements from commissioners) bit.ly/PVyvWb

— George Schroeder (@GeorgeSchroeder) July 13, 2012

To be fair, this makes sense. USC and Stanford both already have a permanent arrangement with Notre Dame, much like Utah and BYU used to have. They would now have two slots on their three-game OOC schedule taken up before they could schedule one more foe.

USC, for example, enjoys traveling across the country to expand their brand. In the past few years, they have played on the road against Minnesota, Hawaii and Notre Dame. In the coming years, they have road games against Syracuse, Boston College, Texas and Texas A&M. Having a forced arrangement will hamper their ability to continue this practice moving forward.

For Arizona State, this has to be a small disappointment. Having a game against a Big Ten foe every season would greatly improve the quality of the schedule. There would also be great opportunities for the Sun Devils to prove their talents against epic foes such as Michigan, Ohio State and Nebraska.

Even without the scheduling arrangement, the Devils can still work with Big Ten schools to schedule future home-and-home series. ASU is wrapping up their series against Illinois this season and Wisconsin in 2013. It would stand to reason that future series will be a certainty.