Source: USC, UCLA considering move from Pac-12 to Big Ten

[Auggie]

USC and UCLA, two of the Pac-12's flagship programs, are considering leaving the conference for the Big Ten as early as 2024, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

There is still a formal notification process, as the two schools have to let the Pac-12 know their intentions to leave. USC and UCLA also have to formally apply to the Big Ten. According to a source, that process is underway.

The San Jose Mercury News first reported the news.

Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was not immediately available for comment.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/34173688/source-usc-ucla-considering-move-pac-12-big-ten

Yeah ...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. I heard that on the CBS Radio news too, or maybe the local CBS radio station, WTOP. NT

[LisaM]

2. Newsflash from the Big 10 - we don't want you.

Begone, and take Maryland and Rutgers and Penn State with you.

[rurallib]

7. so when did a sports league care bout the fans?

[rurallib]

3. money makes the world go around, the world go around,

the world go around - that clinking clanking sound!

from Cabaret

I am so old I remember when the NCAA tried to pretend the that college sports was so pure

[Auggie]

4. Yeah. Money is the motivation ... and it will probably happen.

[empedocles]

5. Big 10 has big tv markets, contracts, and prestige. Competition with SEC.

' . . . The move would mark the latest seismic shift in a college sports landscape that is changing faster than ever. It mirrors the size of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 and joining the SEC in the near-future, and cements that geography is no longer an obstacle for schools to join conferences (what’s stopping Gonzaga from making the long-speculated move to the Big East, for example?) . . . '

https://www.nj.com/sports/2022/06/bombshell-usc-ucla-plan-to-join-big-ten-leave-pac-12-what-it-means-for-rutgers

[rsdsharp]

6. So now the Big 10, with 14 teams currently, will have 16?

The Big 12 has 10 teams. And now the Pac 12 will also have 10?

Why? (I know. Money. But still.)

[empedocles]

9. Why? From the Big 10 perspective, not let SEC get a big jump.

USC/UCLA are big.

Big 10 seems to be ahead of SEC in most ways.

[Taylor Picker]

10. From Matt Norlander via Twitter:

Why today for this? Because June 30 marks the last day USC and UCLA could inform the Pac-12 they intend on leaving the conference if they want to avoid potential additional financial penalties, sources tell @CBSSports. The active Pac-12 grant of rights expires on June 30, 2024.

Sources across college sports are expecting a formal announcement today about USC + UCLA’s intention to leave the Pac-12. The latest a formal announcement is expected to land is tomorrow, but today is what folks are bracing for. Might even be within the hour, but we’ll see.

One conference commissioner who has been involved in realignment decisions previously told CBS Sports: "You don’t leak it unless it is done."

My understanding is this new, 16-team Big Ten would to not move to divisions, at least in the revenue-producing sports. Conferences are moving away from divisional model, and it’s unlikely the Big Ten would split and go 8 + 8.

Sources said this has not been something in the works covertly for months. It seems the Big Ten/UCLA/USC were able to come together and get this done fairly quickly. This merger is NOT why the billion-dollar Big Ten rights deal wasn’t announced earlier in June, a source added.

Lingering impression from sources across college sports: the general lack of shock over UCLA, USC's withdrawal. This isn't landing with a thunderclap like Texas + OU to the SEC. The B1G expanding again has been softly expected ever since its major realignment from ~a decade ago.

M. West schools—most notably San Diego St—making a move to the P-12 is seen as the next obvious step here. And the just-take-Gonzaga speculation will likely get buzz, though the P-12 has always rejected football-less GU from ever seriously being considered. Will this change that?

[Auggie]

11. Thanks for sharing

[AZProgressive]

12. The Pac 10 and Pac 12 was nice while it lasted

Conference networks and the college football playoff ruined college football.

[Auggie]

14. Really lessens the relevancy of the West Coast teams, you know?

[Diamond_Dog]

16. That was my first thought as well.

[caraher]

13. Blow it all up

Now that it's explicitly all about the money, just drop the pretense that this has anything to do with colleges. Get rid of NIL and pay the players directly to play. Have investors pay colleges for the team names and run everything as a true minor league system.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

15. Well, the Big Ten logo makes mores sense now...

... since it resembled "B16", as if to represent 16 teams.



The Big Ten reps voted unanimously to invite USC and UCLA to join their conference in 2024, so it's apparently a done deal.

Both USC and UCLA are AAU members, as top schools in scientific research, so the Big Ten has maintained their desire to only allow AAU members to join their conference. (Nebraska is the only exception, but that school WAS an AAU member when it was invited to join the Big Ten.)

AAU schools:
https://www.aau.edu/who-we-are/our-members

The remaining AAU members from the PAC-12 are Stanford, Cal, Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. But since MONEY is probably the biggest factor, I doubt that most of those schools will get invitations.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

17. You might need thicker sweaters come November, ladies.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

18. The Big Ten Championship Game remains in Indianapolis...

... through 2024 per an earlier agreement, but it might make more financial sense to move that game to the Rose Bowl thereafter.

If the Pac-12 conference keeps losing relevancy, perhaps the "Granddaddy of Them All" will become a conference title game instead... and played almost a month earlier than previous years?

[Auggie]

19. Ah, yes ... playoffs! This should resurrect expansion talk again.

It was officially "settled" a few months ago. Bet it changes with more money on the table.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/33320585/why-college-football-playoff-not-expanding-next

[Buckeye_Democrat]

20. Maybe... but the "blue blood" schools...

... might prefer a more limited playoff system anyway, to help keep the other schools from getting a bigger cut of the pie? Not sure.

As for my earlier post in regard to the Rose Bowl, it would make even more sense if the Big Ten snatched another four (or more) teams from the Pac-12.

Then they could have eastern and western divisions, with the eastern schools sort of representing the old Big Ten and the western schools more like the old Pac-10. Then the conference title game would have some semblance to the traditional conference rivalry at the Rose Bowl.

Yet I've read about intentions to discontinue conference championship games too, so my speculation is probably way off.

It just struck me as a way to maintain the traditional pageantry of the Rose Bowl, since that's another big topic with these recent developments.

EDIT: All of these changes will turn off a lot of old college football fans, of course. I'm not super-keen about it either, but I've become accustomed to humanity needing to SERVE MONEY above all else in this country. It's basically our country's God, regularly demanding sacrifices from the majority of people. Let's just reduce the whole planet to a barren wasteland while we're at it, since that's what money seems to demand.

[Auggie]

21. The bigger pie: three "playoff" games (4 teams) vs eleven (12 teams)

These game take on greater importance; broadcast rights would likely increase. A bigger slice of pie for everybody would be strong incentive.

I don't have a horse in the race, though it's interesting to watch from the sideline. Yeah, "SERVE MONEY." When playoffs do expand I expect some of these 11 games to stream exclusively on Prime or AppleTV. That would sweeten the pie even more.

The Rose Bowl tradition has had a good run -- since 1902! They'll have to lick their wounds and join the future.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

22. You're probably correct.

And there's been rumors on Twitter and elsewhere that Oregon and Washington have applied to join the Big Ten too, but with no decisions yet.

An article making that prediction:
https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/2022/06/30/obvious-prediction-to-make-after-uscs-move-oregon-washington-will-join-big-ten/

If they get Cal and Stanford to join at some point as well, then Washington State, Oregon State and the four newest members of the Pac-12 will be left behind -- Arizona & Arizona State (both joined years ago to expand the conference from 8 to 10 teams), Colorado and Utah.

Then the 10 western schools would be:
USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

And the 10 eastern schools would be:
Rutgers, Maryland, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois and Northwestern.

Assuming such a super-conference would have divisions, which I personally think they should if the Big Ten indeed ever expands to 20 teams.

[Auggie]

23. Two divisions of ten teams would be nice and neat

Makes sense for Oregon and Washington to move ASAP as well as Cal and Stanford.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

24. It would be more like an official merger...

Last edited Fri Jul 1, 2022, 02:42 PM - Edit history (3)

... of the Big Ten and Pac-10 schools (with a few obvious changes), which perhaps more people should've predicted since those two conferences have been joined at the hip via the Rose Bowl for decades. And both conferences had the most AAU member schools too.

EDIT:
I think such divisions would help retain more of the college football fan base, which they might lose if the Big Ten focuses too much on expanding their "TV market" over a broader geographical area. A wider geographical viewing area doesn't matter as much as retaining or increasing actual viewers.
And they can keep the Rose Bowl this way too, as a conference title game, which was already getting lower-quality teams invited to that game because the CFP was taking their higher-ranked conference teams.