New York - Realizing bigger isn't necessarily better, the Big Ten and Pac-12 were looking for ways to get the benefits of conference expansion without adding members.

The rich and powerful leagues announced on Wednesday a plan to start regularly competing against one another in the hope that together they can increase their national exposure.

While the partnership is for all sports, the most noticeable changes will be seen in football.

The two 12-team leagues are aiming to create a 12-game inter-conference schedule by the 2017 season that would have each school play an opponent from the other conference every season.

That could mean a steady diet of matchups between heavyweight programs such as Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin from the Big Ten against Pac-12 powers such as Southern California and Oregon - and less games against lower-level Division I programs.

Increased competition between the leagues in sports other than football could start as early as next year.

"From my perspective this improves the scheduling and creates more high-profile matchups," Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a brief phone interview. "It gets us exposure into the Midwest and East Coast on the Big Ten media platforms, the Big Ten Network and ESPN. And we hope it brings some rivalries that are rooted in a 100-year tradition of the Rose Bowl.

The Big Ten and Pac-12 have been Rose Bowl partners for decades.

"For me it's a creative way to accomplish a lot of things the conferences seek through expansion without having to expand," Scott said.

Scott said the idea bloomed after the Pac-12 presidents rejected the idea of further expansion back in October.

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany said his league came to the conclusion that getting bigger didn't translate into getting better.

"When we looked at models for 14 or 16 teams we couldn't see how we weren't diluted," Delany said in a phone interview. "But we continued to look at ways to make ourselves more interesting, increase our reach, make ourselves more national."

And it does so without having to disturb - or potentially destroy - another conference.

"To be honest with you there has been collateral damage," Delany said of expansion.

Both conferences will continue to operate autonomously and many details of the agreement are still to be worked out.