In a stunning and seismic shift in university athletics, the Big Ten voted Thursday to feature Southern California and UCLA as convention contributors starting in 2024.
The enlargement to sixteen groups will take place after the Pac-12’s cutting-edge media rights contracts with Fox and ESPN expire and make the Big Ten the primary convention to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The announcement, which stuck the Pac-12 off-guard, got here nearly a yr after Oklahoma and Texas officially regular invites to enroll in the Southeastern Conference in July 2025.
Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren stated USC and UCLA, each contributors of the Pac-12 and its preceding iterations for almost a century, submitted programs for club and the league's Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to feature the Los Angeles faculties.
“Ultimately, the Big Ten is the nice domestic for USC and Trojan athletics as we circulate into the brand new global of collegiate sports activities,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn stated. “We are excited that our values align with the league’s member institutions. We will also enjoy the balance and electricity of the convention; the athletic quality of Big Ten institutions; the multiplied visibility, publicity, and sources the convention will convey our student-athletes and packages; and the cappotential to extend engagement with our passionate alumni nationwide.”
The Big Ten is constructing on preceding enlargement into the nation's biggest media markets, and the circulate lets in the convention to hold tempo with the SEC as one of the maximum effective entities in university sports activities.
The Big Ten will advantage blueblood packages in football (USC) and basketball (UCLA) and big-call manufacturers on the way to beautify the price of the convention's new media rights package deal presently being negotiated.
Losing flagship faculties like USC and UCLA is a prime blow to the Pac-12, which has had a protracted and amicable dating with the Big Ten nice exemplified via way of means of its Rose Bowl partnership.
“While we're extraordinarily amazed and disenchanted via way of means of the information popping out of UCLA and USC today, we've a protracted and storied records in athletics, academics, and management in helping student-athletes that we’re assured will keep to thrive and develop into the destiny,” the Pac-12 stated in a statement.
The Pac-12's subsequent circulate is unknown, however including faculties to update USC and UCLA is a possibility.
“We look ahead to partnering with cutting-edge and capacity contributors to pioneer the destiny of university athletics collectively,” the Pac-12 stated.
The Big Ten has increased two times in latest years, with Nebraska becoming a member of in 2011 and Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.
USC and UCLA in shape the Big Ten’s educational profile. Both faculties are a number of the sixty five contributors of the Association of American Universities, that is made from pinnacle studies universities. All Big Ten faculties besides Nebraska are contributors.
“From multiplied publicity and a broader country wide platform for our student-athletes, to improved sources for our groups, this circulate will assist hold the legacy of UCLA Athletics for generations to come,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond stated.
“We have deeply valued our club within side the Pac-12, and we've exceptional recognize for the convention and our fellow member institutions, however every college faces its personal particular demanding situations and circumstances. We consider that is the proper circulate for UCLA on the proper time.”
USC and UCLA stand to noticeably boom their revenues. The Pac-12 allotted handiest $19.eight million in line with college in economic yr 2021, via way of means of a ways the least amongst Power five meetings. The Big Ten's in line with-college distribution was $46.1 million, 2d handiest to the SEC's $54.6 million.
The Pac-12 has had problem getting its convention tv community untracked at the same time as the Big Ten Network is the maximum installed of the convention networks.
USC and UCLA might be taking a step up in football, each in visibility and competition.
“Pac-12 After Dark” televised video games that kick off within side the center to overdue evenings in maximum of the usa have made it tough for the convention to get publicity. The Pac-12 has had groups within side the College Football Playoff simply two times — Oregon (2014 season) and Washington (2016).
USC President Carol L. Folt stated she and college leaders taken into consideration the coast-to-coast journey on the way to include competing within side the Big Ten. Nebraska is the westernmost college within side the convention now, and Lincoln is sort of 1,500 miles from Los Angeles. Rutgers, the easternmost Big Ten college, is an almost five 1/2-hour flight from LA.
“We are lucky we are able to spend the subsequent years running with the convention on journey and scheduling plans,” Folt stated.
The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast Conference ultimate August shaped an alliance within side the wake of Oklahoma and Texas becoming a member of the SEC. The meetings stated the forty one contributors might take a collaborative technique to charting the destiny of athletics. The 3 meetings installation scheduling preparations in a few sports activities and feature pooled sources to sell athlete welfare.
Less than a yr later, the destiny of the alliance might seem bleak with the Big Ten taking of the Pac-12′s largest manufacturers.
USC and UCLA might be severing longstanding convention relationships. USC joined California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Washington and Washington State within side the Pacific Coast Conference in 1922, observed via way of means of UCLA in 1928.
They went collectively in 1959 to the Athletic Association of Western Universities, which have become the Pac-eight in 1968, the Pac-10 in 1978 and Pac-12 in 2011.
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