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