Pac-12, Big Ten scrap scheduling plans

The Big Ten and Pac-12 announced Friday that they were scrapping plans to schedule games against each other in all sports, with Pac-12 officials saying there were too many complications with football schedules to pull it off.

The conferences agreed to the partnership in December, well before a four-team football playoff set to begin in 2014 was approved by a committee of university presidents last month.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said the conference recently learned from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott that coordinating a nonconference football schedule for 24 teams across two leagues by 2017 proved to be too difficult. Delany said those complications included the Pac-12’s nine-game conference schedule and previous nonconference commitments.

The Big Ten has previously discussed moving from eight to nine conference games and could move in that direction now that league teams aren’t playing a Pac-12 opponent every year.

“A great effort was made by both conference staffs to create football schedules that would address the variety of complexities, but in the end, we were just not able to do so,” Delany said. “While everyone at the Big Ten is disappointed by the news, we look forward to continuing the historic partnership that we have with the Pac-12 …”

Scott said the Pac-12 wants to keep playing nine league games while maintaining as much flexibility in out-of-conference scheduling as possible. He said the leagues will continue a close relationship, including their long partnership with the Rose Bowl.