Big Ten and SEC leaders are reportedly mulling a partnership tied to football scheduling and the future of the College Football Playoff.

According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, athletic directors from the 2 powerhouse programs are discussing a partnership that would be tied to football scheduling and their preferences for automatic bids in the next version of the College Football Playoff.

The idea of a partnership will be discussed during an in-person meeting in Nashville, Tennessee next week Dinich reports. That is per multiple sources that Dinich pointed to within both the SEC and the B1G.

Such a report is not entirely surprising considering the recent events from both leagues. Earlier this year, the two conferences announced a joint advisory group made up of the university presidents, chancellors and ADs.

“There is hope that we can definitely move the needle and make some progress on different things,” one Big Ten source said.

Dinich points to one key in a potential partnership revolving around the SEC’s decision to eventually go to 9 league games in a season. She pointed to the idea of certain B1G ADs pushing back on agreement if the SEC wants to remain at 8 conference games.

“If we’re all going to figure this out,” one source said, “we’ve got to be on equal footing.”

Another key aspect of a potential agreement would be guiding the future of the CFP. One of Dinich’s SEC sources pointed to “the maximum number of postseason opportunities” for the conference while saying bowl games aren’t even considered in those opportunities.

That same source pointed to taking the subjectivity of the committee out of the equation with auto bids:

“I think anything we can do to take the subjectivity of a committee off the table is really helpful,” the SEC source said. “We may not be able to completely get rid of subjectivity the more we can minimize it. And so Tony Petitti’s idea of multiple automatic spots for a conference has a lot of value. I’m not sure four is the right number.”

Of course, this kind of chatter likely recalls images of the ill-fated “Alliance” that was previously entered into between the B1G, ACC and Pac-12. That alliance never achieved anything of consequence before the Pac-12 ultimately disintegrated.

However, it was always clear that the B1G held the most power and upper hand in that previous Alliance. That would not be the case with the SEC and B1G on a more equal footing in this new era of college athletics.

If those 2 leagues are willing to work together on these major issues, they could further separate themselves from the rest of the pack before long.