Report: USC, UCLA Planning Move to the Big Ten
College football might be in store for a massive shakeup on a national scale in the next few years. According to a report from Pac-12 expert Jon Wilner of the Mercury News, USC and UCLA are planning to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 10 as early as 2024.
His report comes with the very strong caveat that the move “has not been finalized” at the highest levels.
This would not be the first major move to affect the fabric of college football. Oklahoma and Texas are set to join the SEC in 2024. If the move of the Los Angeles schools does indeed happen, it would be comparable to those programs moving. It would also decimate the Pac-12 conference in losing flagship programs in a number of sports, including football and men’s basketball.
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The move would make sense financially for both programs. The Big Ten and SEC have clearly separated themselves as the two power conferences when it comes to economics of college sports. The Pac-12 is focused on saying they will be able to close the gap when its new media rights contract is finalized sometime before the 2024 season. But the Big Ten is set to sign a new deal around that same time and all indications are that the gap between the two conferences will only widen.
In fact, third-party research firm Navigate looked into the potential payout disparities by conference program over the rest of the decade. Navigate estimates that the SEC and Big Ten could be distributing at least $40 million per school more than the Pac-12 by 2029. While those numbers aren’t set in stone, the trajectory of that widening gap definitely appears to be.
