Lincoln Riley releases statement on USC, UCLA move to Big Ten

USC made headlines earlier this year when they pried Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, but they shook the ground college athletics stands on earlier this week when they decided to leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten.

Now, the leader of the Trojans football program released his first statement regarding the move, as Matt Fortuna of The Athletic shared to Twitter on Sunday.

Lincoln Riley on USC’s move to the Big Ten: pic.twitter.com/juFtSZyPDU

— Matt Fortuna (@Matt_Fortuna) July 3, 2022

“President Folt, Mike Bohn and Brandon Sosa have been completely aligned with the vision of what our athletic department can be, while always putting our student-athletes first,” began Riley. “This move to the Big Ten Conference positions all of our teams for long-term success. It provides our student-athletes with more exposure, new resources and challenges them with elite competition.

“USC Football is excited to compete in the Big Ten.”

Indisputably, the Big Ten will be a huge change for USC football — but with Lincoln Riley at the helm, they’re poised to be a force regardless of the conference they play in.

J.D. PicKell: Lincoln Riley will benefit from USC’s addition to Big Ten

When Lincoln Riley left Oklahoma for USC back in November, it looked like it was a step down in competition going from the Big 12 to the Pac-12. Coupled with Oklahoma’s pending move to the SEC, and people were quick to criticize Riley for his departure.

But now, the Trojans are gearing up to join the Big Ten with UCLA in a few years as part of the latest conference realignent windfall — and On3’s J.D. PicKell argued it’s time for people to change their tune about Riley.

“I think it gives Lincoln Riley a little bit more respect,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “Not that anybody that knows the game like we do is really knocking Lincoln Riley for leaving Oklahoma and going to USC because there’s a lot that goes into that. But remember when that news broke that he was going to USC and a lot of people — a lot of people — were talking about, ‘Wow, he doesn’t want to go to the SEC. He’s scared of the competition. He’s running. That’s why he’s going to the Pac-12.’

“Folks, I have a really, really hard time believing that Lincoln Riley took this job with USC with no inkling that they were potentially joining the Big Ten Conference. Moves like this don’t happen overnight. This wasn’t a weekend call between USC and [the] Big Ten and they decided, ‘Hey, maybe we’ll make this happen. Let’s see if we can throw something together.’ I feel very confident in assuming this was months if not more in the works. So for Lincoln Riley, I’m not saying the Big Ten’s the SEC, but the Big Ten’s not the Pac-12. Just the fact of the matter.”