Ivan Maisel addresses potential for ‘academics-first’ conference breakaway amid NIL, realignment

Conference realignment rumors are flying around the country like boomerangs this summer. The Pac-12 is being cannibalized by the Big Ten and potentially the Big 12, which leaves programs like Stanford wondering what could come next. One such suggestion is an academics-focused conference, where schools like Stanford and some of the other top scholastic institutions who are in re-alignment limbo, come together over a shared focus on the classroom, not the football field or basketball court. On3’s national college football expert Ivan Maisel believes there’s potential for an alliance, with Stanford being very forward in its emphasis on academics over athletics.

He recently joined the On Texas Football YouTube channel to discuss the possibilities for that sort of conference involving Stanford. Here’s what he said regarding some of the academics-focused schools linking up on their own amid the power conference shake ups:

Ivan Maisel’s comments

“If they could get the academically-oriented FBS schools … Stanford would listen to that I think,” Maisel said. “The other thing is, how comfortable would the Pac-12 be taking schools that they’ve turned their nose up at for the last umpteen years. I’m skeptical of that.”

He went on to name some schools he believes would qualify under that umbrella.

“Northwestern is safe. Vanderbilt is safe. Duke and UVA, maybe [North] Carolina. The ACC is on decently solid ground at this point. Stanford would have to do a terrific sales job to make that kind of league happen. The other option is that they don’t play football. The alumni would be in an uproar about that. The administration feels very strongly about making sure that they’re the dog and athletics is the tail. Not the other way around. This is not an administration that, frankly, they don’t have great interest in athletics. It’s not a high priority for them the way it has been in the past.”

However, Maisel notes, fans of Stanford sports programs and loyal alumnus do not share the same sentiment.

“They became painfully aware last year of how important it is to the alumni when they tried to cut 11 sports and got shouted into submission. But that didn’t really change how they think about athletics.”