In a summer of upheaval for col-

lege football, yet another development 
threatens to fundamentally change the 
structure of the sport. 

The Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC 

announced Tuesday that they are join-
ing forces in an inter-conference “alli-
ance,” intended to both counter the 
SEC’s expansion into a 16-team super-
conference and reinforce “shared val-
ues” among the three conferences. 

“I think we have to keep in mind 

what brought us to this day — what 
brought us all to college athletics — and 
that is the student athletes,” Big Ten 
Commissioner Kevin Warren said. “We 
need to make sure we have shared val-
ues, we keep academics first, we keep 
our integrity and honor and collabora-
tion together,” 

The alliance includes a scheduling 

partnership in football and men’s and 
women’s basketball which, according 
to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, will 
“elevate the national profile of all of our 
teams by playing from coast to coast 
with college fans across the country 
as the beneficiaries.” While the specif-
ics of the partnership remain unclear, 
the existing ACC-Big Ten Challenge 
in men’s and women’s basketball could 
serve as a baseline model for what inter-
conference competition will look like. 

Crucially, the scheduling alliance 

in football comes alongside a round of 
College Football Playoff (CFP) expan-
sion, which in turn could remove dis-
incentives against scheduling tough 
non-conference opponents. In June, 
a sub-group of the CFP management 
committee proposed a 12-team playoff 
format to supplant the existing four-
team model. All three commissioners 
expressed support for the expansion 
but also emphasized the challenges that 
come with it. 

“I’m a big believer in expanding the 

College Football Playoff,” Warren said. 
“But also, I’m a big believer in being 
methodical and doing our homework. … 
We need to think through the length of 
the season, health and wellness issues 
— not only physical but also mental — 
primarily the academics, how does this 
affect final exams.”

The three conferences will also work 

together to confront the challenges of 
changing name, image and likeness 
(NIL) legislation brought about by the 
Supreme Court decision in National Col-
legiate Athletic Association v. Alston. As 

of now, there is little NCAA guidance or 
rules regarding NIL. If the three confer-
ences have similar priorities, the alliance 
could help them coordinate in the cre-
ation of league-wide guidance. 

“These matters, while challeng-

ing, also present once-in-a-generation 
opportunities for the leaders in college 
sports to reevaluate long-standing ways 
of conducting our business,” Pac-12 
Commissioner George Kliavkoff said. “ 
… Despite the shifting landscape, there 
are some critical constants among 
many in college athletics, and specifi-
cally among every one of the 41 member 
institutions in our three conferences.”

Still, the agreement between the 

three conferences is just that: an agree-
ment. There is no signed contract laying 
out expectations, nor is there a specific 
timeline to the plans laid out by the 
alliance. Another round of unexpected 
conference realignment or a drastic 
shift in TV deals could, in theory, send 
the whole alliance up in smoke. 

The commissioners don’t see that 

happening. 

“It’s about trust,” Phillips said. “… 

We’ve looked each other in the eye, 
we’ve made an agreement. We have 
great confidence and faith, our board 
charis have looked each other in the eye 
and have committed to the same level of 
support and connection to one another, 
our athletic directors have done that.”

After a strong showing in 

the first half of the Olym-
pics, more Wolverine ath-
letes will be returning from 
Tokyo with some new hard-
ware. 

A Canadian gold medal 

highlights the showcase of 
Michigan athletic perfor-
mance as current junior 
Jayde Riviere and former 
Wolverine Shelina Zador-
sky (2010 – 2013) helped 
their soccer team defeat 
Sweden in a game that was 
decided by penalty kicks. 

Riviere played 27 minutes 

in extra time as a defend-
er while Zadorsky only 
logged less than a minute 
in match time. Zadorsky 
won a bronze medal at the 

2016 Rio games, while this 
is Riviere’s first Olympic 
medal. Additionally, it is 
also the first time a Cana-
dian women’s soccer team 
has brought gold back to 
the North American coun-
try. 

In addition to the two 

soccer 
medals, 
graduate 

student 
wrestler 
Myles 

Amine will be bringing a 
bronze medal to San Mari-
no. Amine was one of the 
flag bearers for the small 
country and is the first 
individual male Olympic 
medalist in the nation’s his-
tory.

Thanks to a late take-

down, Amine became the 
second Michigan wrestler 
to ever win an Olympic 
medal, and is the first free-
style wrestling medalist to 
emerge from the program. 

Ultimately, the Wolver-

ines won 11 medals: 3 gold, 5 
silver, and 3 bronze. Swim-
mer Maggie MacNeil con-
tributed most to that total 
after leaving Tokyo with 
three medals (1 gold, 1 sil-
ver, 1 bronze). In addition 
to MacNeil, former swim-
mer Siobhán Haughey won 
two silver medals and for-
mer swimmer Catie DeLoof 
won a bronze. Softball play-
er Amanda Chidester and 
graduate assistant diving 
coach Michael Hixon both 
won silver medals as well. 

With its 11 total medals, 

Michigan would have tied 
for 18th with the Czech 
Republic in the total medal 
standings, proving that the 
Wolverine athletic domi-
nance of the past was no 
different for these Olympic 
games.

The way Donovan Jeter 

sees it, last year’s season-
opening demolition of then-
No. 21 Minnesota was the 
worst thing to happen to the 
Michigan football team. 

“We 
were 
feeling 
our-

selves a little too much,” the 
fifth-year defensive tackle 
recounted on Tuesday, ten 
months later and two weeks 
into Michigan’s 2021 fall 
camp. “All the players were 
on social media. I don’t 
wanna say, ‘took our foot off 
the gas,’ like we weren’t pre-
paring hard, (but) we started 
feeling ourselves too much. 
In college football, you can’t 
do that. It doesn’t matter who 
you play.” 

The Wolverines learned 

that the hard way last year, 
slogging through a calami-
tous 
2-4 
campaign 
and 

reaching the nadir of the 
Jim Harbaugh era. By the 
time a COVID-19 outbreak 
brought the season to a mer-
ciless close, the victory over 
Minnesota seemed like a 
mirage. 

Michigan’s defense played 

a significant role in the Wol-
verines’ demise. As a collec-
tive unit, it bottomed out as 
the third-worst defense in 

the Big Ten, sinking Michi-
gan’s season along with it. 

Those struggles induced 

an offseason overhaul. Out 
went defensive coordinator 
Don Brown, replaced by Mike 
Macdonald. In came a new 
scheme and an array of new 
philosophies. 

“Coming from last year, we 

really didn’t have too much to 
really show our true talents,” 
Michigan safety Daxton Hill 
said. “Now I feel like we have 
more freedom, a lot more 
tools to work from, whether 
it’s our talent or the coaches’ 
calls. That comes with more 
abilities, more freedom to the 
ball, not being one dimen-
sional.”

While players are confi-

dent that Macdonald’s sys-
tem will pay dividends, the 
early reviews come with an 
asterisk. Fall camp discourse 
is often fallacious, with the 
season looming as the true 
barometer of a team’s suc-
cess. No one knows that bet-
ter than Jeter. 

A 4-star prospect out of 

high school, Jeter has been 
met with lofty expectations 
since he first arrived in Ann 
Arbor. And yet, four years 
into his Michigan career, his 
production has been subpar.

Last week, Michigan coach 

Jim Harbaugh noted that 
Jeter is in the midst of his 

“best month, best offseason” 
as a Wolverine. Entering his 
fifth and perhaps final year 
in the program, Jeter recog-
nizes that it’s time to make 
good on Harbaugh’s words. 

“The compliments from 

Coach 
(Harbaugh) 
are 

always 
nice, 
but 
dude, 

I’ve been getting compli-
ments 
since 
like 
2019,” 

Jeter said. “… I don’t want 
to say it doesn’t mean noth-
ing because that comes off 
wrong. But I just really got 
to go and show it on Satur-
days in the Big House.” 

That holds true for the 

whole unit. If Michigan is 
going to out-perform its pre-
season 
expectations, 
the 

defense will surely be at the 
forefront of the revitaliza-
tion.

And that starts with a fresh 

mindset, as much as any-
thing. 

“Don’t rest on what you did 

yesterday,” Jeter said. “When 
you go to sleep and wake up, 
what you did yesterday does 
not matter — it doesn’t mat-
ter if you had a great day, ter-
rible day, doesn’t matter. You 
can’t go back and change it or 
fix it. 

“We’ve all been preaching 

to, every day, find something 
to get better at. Every day, 
get a step closer to where you 
want to get to.”

Sports
8 — Wednesday, September 1, 2021

After underwhelming 2020, 

Michigan’s defense looks to start anew

ALEC COHEN/Daily 

The Wolverines’ lackluster defense was a major contributor to their historic 2-4 season, though, a new defensive coordinator may 
right the ship this year.

Big Ten, Pac-12, ACC form 
inter-conference alliance
SPORTS

JARED GREENSPAN

Daily Sports Editor

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Editor

MILES MACKLIN/Daily 

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren announced an alliance between the PAC-12, ACC and Big Ten for 
future collaboration within college sports.

Michigan athletes finish Tokyo Olympics with 11 medals

MAX WADLEY

Daily Sports Writer

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily 

Michigan wrestler Myles Amine won a bronze medal in freestyle wrestling.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

