This is originally reported by Max Olson and The Athletic ($), but since I don’t have a subscription, we’re getting the cliff’s notes version via Dallas Morning News’ Chuck Carlton:

The commissioners of the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 are discussing a possible alliance, The Athletic reported Friday evening.

And those talks could represent another bit of bad news for the Big 12. The conference does not appear to be part of the early alliance discussions at the moment, The Athletic reported.

The Big 12 suffered a major blow last month when cornerstone programs Texas and Oklahoma served notice to the conference and then accepted invitations to the Southeastern Conference, effective July 1, 2025. The eight remaining teams have since been exploring their options, whether as a group or individually.

Commissioner Bob Bowlsby met with new Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff for six hours last week to discuss possible options from a scheduling alliance to a merger. Some sort of alliance with a fellow Power Five conference would have represented a lifeline for the Big 12.

I won’t try to read too much into this, but it doesn’t bode well. I’d say that this doesn’t mean that Texas Tech won’t be included in some sort of realignment with the Pac-12, but it doesn’t mean that it will either. I go back to the idea of the game of Risk analogy, which is that there are some pieces out there are probably worth taking, I think the most valuable are Texas Tech and Oklahoma. We’ll see.

As an aside, the official site has still not posted any YouTube videos from post-practice press conferences. Hopefully they will next week.