Larry Scott’s Pac-12 is focused on finding a way to limit student-athlete injuries. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

The Pac-12 is launching a venture to focus on the health and safety of its students athletes, the league announced Monday. The effort will include limiting contact in football practices.

The conference and its CEO Group made up of university presidents and chancellors agreed to the “Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative” after last weekend’s Pac-12 spring meetings. The initiative will kick off for the 2013-14 academic year.

“The health and well-being of our more than 7,000 student-athletes competing within the Pac-12 each year is of paramount importance,” said Pac-12 CEO Group Chair Ed Ray. “This new initiative is a great step towards taking advantage of the full resources of our research institutions for the benefit of our student-athletes.”

The Pac-12′s release notes that while it is “impossible to eliminate all injuries,” the league is committed to reducing injuries by employing new practices, studies and research. The initiative will include:

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Ohio State will renew its annual rivalry with Michigan in Ann Arbor on Nov. 28, 2015. (Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

The Big Ten released its 2015 schedule on Monday for what will be the league’s final season before moving to a nine-game conference format in 2016.

The 2015 Big Ten slate kicks off with an East Division matchup between Rutgers and Penn State on Sept. 19. The 12 remaining schools begin nine consecutive weeks of league play on Oct. 3.

The winners of the 2015 schedule unveiling appear to be Nebraska and Wisconsin. The Big Ten powers avoid facing fellow conference heavyweights Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State in both 2014 and 2015.

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Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott took in more than $3 million in 2011-12. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott pulled in more than $3 million for the calendar year 2011-12, according to tax documents released by the conference on Sunday. That number makes Scott the highest-paid conference commissioner ever, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Scott’s total surpassed that of Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, whose $2.8 million in compensation made him the highest-paid conference commissioner as recently as last week. Interestingly, Scott’s compensation is almost double that of the SEC’s Mike Slive, who netted $1.6 million.

Scott took home a base salary of $1,575,000 with a bonus of $1,376,000. Other compensation accounted for $71,462 of his total.

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The Big Ten took in more than $315 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. (Robin Alam/Icon SMI)

By Zac Ellis

The Big Ten reported record revenue in the league’s latest federal tax returns, upstaging even the SEC in profitability.

According to a report by Steve Berkowitz of USA Today, the Big Ten brought in more than $315 million in revenue for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2012. That was $42 million more than the SEC reported for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2012.

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The SEC Network: Not short on money, or coaches who wish they’d worn more comfortable pants to this press conference. (AP)

By Holly Anderson

Project X has been unveiled as the SEC Network at last, with a logo and a launch date and everything. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help.

• What’s all this, then? This is the SEC Network, introduced to the public this morning by a host of ESPN suits and assorted conference coaches, including Messrs. Bielema, Franklin, Freeze, Jones, Malzahn, Miles, Mullen, Muschamp, Pinkel, Richt, Saban, Spurrier, Stoops and Sumlin.

• Did all those football coaches have to perch up on those director’s chairs that whole time? Just long enough to get a good squirm, and for us to confirm that everyone in attendance was wearing socks.

• Did any coach interrupt the show to take a phone call? No, but when the network trailer showed Jadeveon Clowney’s infamous Michigan hit, Spurrier and Saban bent their heads together, presumably to share a chuckle at the Wolverines’ expense.

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Executive director Bill Hancock (right) expects four teams in the playoff for at least 12 years. (AP)

By Zac Ellis

The newly named College Football Playoff might be the next big step in the sport, but many hope the upcoming postseason model will one day expand to include even more teams. It might be a while before that happens, though.

On Thursday at the BCS Meetings in Pasadena, Calif., executive director Bill Hancock said the playoff will remain at four teams for at least the duration of the 12-year deal, which goes into effect after the 2014 season.

Hancock: "We know people are going to want eight [teams], and some are going to want 16, or 32. But it’s going to be four, for 12 years."—
Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) April 25, 2013

The current plan will pit four teams, as chosen by a selection committee, in two semifinal bowl games to earn a berth in the new College Football Championship Game, which replaces the BCS National Championship Game. The first title game in the new playoff format will take place at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Jan. 12, 2015.

By Zac Ellis

The Mountain West has approached the Pac-12 about a potential partnership, Jeremy Fowler of CBSSports.com reports. MWC commissioner Craig Thompson hopes the two leagues can form an alliance around nonconference scheduling, bowl matchups and officials. Together, the MWC and Pac-12 count 24 West Coast teams as members.

#MWC approaches #Pac12 about "best practices" partnership of resources, scheduling, etc, commish told @CBSSports cbssports.com/collegefootbal…—
Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerCBS) April 24, 2013

The Mountain West, which only a year ago saw conference realignment threaten its very existence, convinced Boise State and San Diego State to remain with the conference instead of defecting to other leagues. Thompson said he believes the Pac-12 is open to the possibility of a partnership.

Henceforth known as A Glass Prolate Spheroid Awarded To College Football’s Top Team. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

By Zac Ellis

We’ll say this about conference commissioners: They get right to the point. The forthcoming four-team college football playoff in 2014 will be called the College Football Playoff, according to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, who first reported the story.

The new postseason format, which will debut after the 2014 regular season, is set to replace the current BCS format. The College Football Playoff’s announced name is perhaps the first disappointment in an otherwise highly anticipated development in the sport.

As one might imagine, the relative blandness of the moniker didn’t sit too well with the Twitterverse. Some responses, after the jump:

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Mike Slive and the SEC are reportedly set to formally announce the league’s TV network. (Padraic Major/Icon SMI)

By Zac Ellis

The long-awaited SEC network appears to be a step closer to reality. The conference and ESPN will formally announce the league’s channel, which will launch in August 2014, at an event in Atlanta on Tuesday, according to SportsBusiness Journal.

The yet-to-be-named SEC network is slated to be a national channel, much like the Big Ten and Pac-12 networks before it. According to SBJ, the league cleared its biggest hurdle by re-aquiring part of its TV rights from IMG College, Learfield Sports and CBS Collegiate Sports Properties, which include one football game, eight men’s basketball games, baseball, women’s basketball and other sports not claimed by ESPN or another partner.

The SEC will now spend the month until the launch building the network, including hiring staff. More details to come next week.

Andy Staples on Jim Delany: “In a declaration filed last week in federal court in support of the NCAA’s motion against class certification, Delany threatened that any outcome that results in athletes getting a piece of the schools’ television revenue could force the schools of the Big Ten to de-emphasize athletics as the Ivy League’s schools did decades ago.”

Jim Delany to Andy Staples: “It’s not that we want to go Division III or go to need-based aid,” Delany said. “It’s simply that in the plaintiff’s hypothetical — and if a court decided that Title IX is out and players must be paid — I don’t think we’d participate in that. I think we’d choose another option. … If that’s the law of the land, if you have to do that, I don’t think we would.”

Internet’s reaction: Over there to your right.

Campus Union Feelings Collage on the subject: After the jump.

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