USC, UCLA officially announce move to Big Ten in 2024

USC and UCLA will officially join the Big Ten in 2024, the schools announced in simultaneous statements late Thursday afternoon.

The confirmation comes some six hours after reports broke that the Trojans and Bruins were looking to leave the Pac-12 after a century of continuous membership. USC joined what was then the Pacific Coast Conference in 1921; UCLA followed in 1928.

“Over the past three years, we have worked hard to ground our university decisions in what is best for our students,” USC president Carol L. Folt said. “With the Big Ten, we are joining a storied conference that shares our commitment to academic excellence and athletic competitiveness, and we are positioning USC and our student-athletes for long-term success and stability amidst the rapidly evolving sports media and collegiate athletics landscapes. We are delighted to begin this new chapter in 2024.”

UCLA athletics director Martin Jarmond made the announcement in a letter to the “Bruin Community,” which began as follows:

“For the past century, decisions about UCLA Athletics have always been guided by what is best for our student-athletes, first and foremost, and our fans. Our storied athletics program, based in one of the biggest media markets in the nation, has always had unique opportunities and faced unique challenges. In recent years, however, seismic changes in collegiate athletics have made us evaluate how best to support our student-athletes as we move forward. After careful consideration and thoughtful deliberation, UCLA has decided to leave the Pac-12 Conference and join the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2024–25 season.”

The move of UCLA and USC from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten is the latest seismic shift in college athletics, which began last summer when Texas and Oklahoma announced they would leave the Big 12 for the SEC by 2025. Other conference switches announced since involve schools such as Houston, Cincinnati and Central Florida (American Athletic Conference to Big 12); UAB, SMU, Rice, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic (Conference USA to AAC); Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion (CUSA to Sun Belt); and Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State (FCS to CUSA).

But the move of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten promises to remake the college athletics landscape in much the same way Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC will do. The Big Ten will now stretch from coast to coast, from USC and UCLA on the West Coast, through Nebraska and Iowa in the Great Plains, Ohio State, Michigan and Illinois (among others) in the Rust Belt to Maryland and Rutgers on the Eastern Seaboard.

It’s also possible — if not likely — the Big Ten will continue to add teams. Oregon, Kansas, Notre Dame and perhaps even current members of the ACC such as North Carolina and Duke might be potential targets for additional expansion.

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