Paul Finebaum: Big Ten watching UCLA situation closely, Oregon on the table

To the Big Ten Conference – USC is the cash cow, UCLA was the leftovers, according to SEC analyst Paul Finebaum.

“At some point if the chancellor at UCLA was talking to Gavin Newsom, the governor out there, tells [UCLA] ‘hey, we’re sorry, we can’t go [to the Big Ten],’ do you think anybody at [UCLA] really cares?” Finebaum asked on McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning Monday. “I mean, UCLA was always the kid brother [to USC] going along for the ride – nobody really wanted [UCLA] in the Big Ten.”

Historically, UCLA is one of the greatest programs in the history of college basketball. With more national championship (11) than any other team, the UCLA basketball brand speaks for itself and will immediately compete for Big Ten titles on a yearly basis. Meanwhile, the Bruins have historically lacked a winning edge on the gridiron with three 10-win seasons in the last 24 years.

“You really can’t sell [UCLA] in the Big Ten unless you want to play the basketball card – which nobody wants to play or cares about,” Finebaum said. “I think the Big Ten has to make sure they’ve got Oregon locked down and then they go wherever they go, but that’s the hardest thing to figure out.”

With the Pac-12 in a state of scrambling following the loss of the Trojans and Bruins, the Big Ten could be in prime positioning to acquire Oregon’s services.

Finebaum said we won’t know more until the Big Ten media rights deals are released and the companies will be attached to the deal are revealed. Once that comes into fruition, the Big Ten can swoop the Ducks out from under the Pac-12’s feet – effectively stealing three of their most profitable programs in an incredibly short amount of time.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has said in the past that he wouldn’t expand his conference for the sake of conference realignment. Having just welcomed USC and UCLA to the conference at media days in Indianapolis last week, Warren says the entire landscape is in a “perpetual state of evaluating,” and the move would need to be beneficial to the conference as a whole.