USC and UCLA take proactive approach to realignment with Big Ten move

On Thursday morning on the last day of June, typically a sleepy time in college athletics, the entire status quo burst into the sky like the grand finale of a Fourth of July firework show.

Reports poured out that USC and UCLA would leave the Pac-12 conference and join the Big Ten. Initial reports were that the two Los Angeles schools were in the application process, but by late Thursday afternoon, the Big Ten had voted unanimously to accept both universities, with each joining the conference starting in the fall of 2024.

Not long after, both USC and UCLA made the decision official, releasing statements trumpeting the move to the Big Ten.

“Our move to the Big Ten positions USC for long-term success and stability amidst the rapidly changing sports media and collegiate athletic landscapes,” USC president Carol L. Folt wrote in a letter to the USC community. “The enhanced resources from this move will enable additional support for our student-athletes as well as benefit initiatives surrounding academics, accessibility and affordability.”

UCLA chancellor Gene D. Block and athletic director Martin Jarmond echoed this sentiment in a letter to the UCLA community, stating, “Entry into the Big Ten will also help ensure that UCLA preserves and maintains all 25 current teams and more than 700 student-athletes in our program. Additionally, it means enhanced resources for all of our teams, from academic support to mental health and wellness.”

So, good-bye Stanford, Cal and Oregon. Hello Michigan, Ohio State and … Rutgers?

It all seems unnatural and bizarre at first glance. Travel across the country to New Jersey and Maryland for conference games. Playing the Buckeyes and Wolverines not in the Rose Bowl Game but at 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning at the Coliseum.

But this is the direction that college athletics, and specifically college football, are headed, and USC and UCLA are making the savvy, proactive decision in this ever-shifting landscape, not dissimilar to the move USC athletic director Mike Bohn made to move Colorado from the Big 12 to the Pac-12 in 2011.

Conference realignment has been the rule in college athletics for the past decade. But last year’s bombshell that Texas and Oklahoma were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC was the first indication that the next stage of realignment was upon us: the move from a Power Five to two mega-conferences that feature all the premier programs in the country.

Anyone left out of these conferences? Sorry, better luck never.

So USC and UCLA looked to secure their futures rather than wait for the landscape to shift around them.

“This is the most volatile and uncertain era in the history of American collegiate athletics,” Bohn said in a statement. “USC must ensure it is best positioned and prepared for whatever happens next, and it is our responsibility to always evaluate potential opportunities and be willing to make changes when needed. Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC.”

By all reports, it was the two Los Angeles schools that initiated conversations with the Big Ten about the move. The reasons why are not hard to guess.

Beyond the competitive security that joining the Big Ten provides, there are the financials to consider. The Pac-12 was left far behind the SEC, Big Ten and ACC in media rights deals in the last round of negotiations. Millions were left on the table for all Pac-12 member schools.

The Big Ten, though, has already been ahead of the Pac when it comes to media rights. Now, add two schools from the second-largest media market in the country, and the Big Ten gets a major boost in its ongoing negotiations for a new deal.

By some estimates, the Big Ten could make as much as $100 million annually per school, tens of millions more than any conference other than the SEC. That makes this decision a no-brainer for USC and UCLA.

The money helps pave the way, but it doesn’t do much for fans still clinging to the college football of old, with regional rivalries and traditions. After the 2023 season, it’s uncertain when the next time USC will play its old rival Stanford. UCLA and Cal, both members of the UC system, are headed for a divorce.

These are schools that have played each other annually for over a century, but not for much longer.

“The Trojans’ outstanding athletics heritage will always be synonymous with the Pac-12, and there are so many iconic moments and memories we will cherish forever,” Bohn stated, a message that likely felt hollow to any Pac-12 official reading it.

New rivalries in the Big Ten will surely form. Annual series for UCLA with Indiana and Michigan State in men’s basketball is a blue-blood dream, as are annual football games between USC and Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

Still, it all feels weird to say out loud right now, doesn’t it?

But for USC and UCLA, it was either be proactive or be left holding the bag. That’s the situation Oregon finds itself in now, along with the rest of the Pac-12, or should we say, the Pac-10 again.

The path forward for Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff, who on Friday will celebrate his one-year anniversary with the conference, is uncertain at best. Can you add schools like San Diego State and Boise State to stop the bleeding? Do you try to merge with another conference – say, the Big 12 – and form your own super league?

Who knows if the Big 12 would even be interested after it made a similar offer to the Pac-12 last year that was rebuffed. It might be more inclined to loot the damaged conference. Oregon, Washington and other Pac-12 universities will likely try to jump ship for other conferences. Maybe some join the L.A. schools in the Big Ten.

And if the Pac-12 is ultimately gutted, then what happens to the Rose Bowl Game, traditionally played between that league and – talk about awkward – the Big Ten?

Not even a year ago, Kliavkoff and Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren joined their ACC counterpart in creating “The Alliance” to strengthen their positions against that of the SEC. Part of that handshake agreement, in addition to scheduling partnerships, was not to poach member schools from each other.

But when the Trojans and Bruins came knocking, what was Warren supposed to do?

Expansion is the reality now in college athletics. USC and UCLA just decided to get out in front of it.