Big Ten

J. Brady McCollough is a sports enterprise reporter for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on national college football and basketball topics. Before joining the ...

The Big Ten is currently negotiating its next media rights deal and is expected to be able to fetch upwards of $1 billion per year. USC and UCLA have been flagship members of the West Coast’s power conference for nearly a century. With the Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences lapping the Pac-12 in revenue and football success during the past decade, USC in recent years has been continuously evaluating its options for future conference alignment, even considering joining rival Notre Dame as an independent.

The move by two of the Pac-12 Conference's marquee schools came as the Big Ten closed in on a new television deal.

At the same time, the potential departures of U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. pose a sharp test for George Kliavkoff, who became the Pac-12 commissioner a year ago. But the schools dangle plenty of benefits for the Big Ten, including a robust presence in the nation’s second-largest television market and even smoother access to one of its richest recruiting bases. The additions of U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. would assuredly add to the Big Ten’s stature, and probably its television ratings, too. Although the conference ultimately reversed its decision and staged a fraction of the games it had planned, the episode has shadowed Warren’s tenure. Beyond football and men’s basketball, U.C.L.A. and U.S.C. are forces in the so-called Olympic sports. Especially in an industry governed by contracts and bylaws, with millions of dollars a year at stake for schools in Power 5 conferences, the sequence of events can be crucial for legal reasons. Any deal luring U.S.C. and U.C.L.A. would most likely lift a shadow from Kevin Warren, the Big Ten commissioner, who drew criticism in 2020 when his league initially decided not to play the fall football season because of the pandemic. The Big Ten expected to receive formal applications from the California universities as soon as Thursday, with a vote of university presidents and chancellors likely to follow soon after. A Big Ten stampede into the Southern California media market would indisputably establish it as the most powerful counterweight to the Southeastern Conference and further concentrate influence in an industry bombarded by political and legal pressures over athletes’ rights. The Big Ten’s membership already includes Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State and Wisconsin. The leagues, searching for a check on the SEC’s swelling might, even joined forces with the Atlantic Coast Conference, another Power 5 league, on some issues. Their moves sparked a round of realignment around the country.

USC and UCLA are planning a move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten conference as early as 2024, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Those financial pressures left USC and UCLA with the choice of bullying the Pac-12 for unequal revenue shares or going elsewhere and having a seat at the table for the long term. It will be interesting to see how this will affect Fox's upcoming television deal with the Big Ten, which is expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks. Pac-12 officials had been nudging both Los Angeles schools for years to extend the grant of rights. A source said that the exploration of finances and what it would take to make the move has been going on for weeks. Multiple sources told ESPN on Thursday that the move is expected to happen. There is still a formal notification process, as the two schools have to let the Pac-12 know their intentions to leave.

The potential move by the West Coast college sports powers would stretch the Big Ten's membership into Los Angeles with its 15th and 16th schools.

The three conferences, standing with the SEC and Big 12 among a long-familiar “Power Five,” a phrase tilting toward obsolescence, ultimately blocked the expansion, which may yet happen once the 12-year playoff TV contract expires in 2026. The Pac-12 perfected its storm through parity and fate by reaching none of the past five College Football Playoffs while appearing in just two of the first eight in the four-team playoff concept. In their appeal football-wise, Southern California and UCLA resemble Texas, with their limited recent competitive relevance in national football offset by their large alumni bases and visibility. It has had a TV contract long seen as insufficient next to other conferences such as the Big Ten, which already had begun negotiating new media rights projected to garner more than $1 billion even before adding two big doses of Los Angeles. “There’s no signed contract,” Kliavkoff said. Those three were the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten and the Pac-12, which has included Southern California for 100 years and UCLA for 94.

USC and UCLA are in conversations to join the Big Ten conference, a source tells The Athletic's Nicole Auerbach and Bruce Feldman. Jon Wilner of the Mercury ...

According to updated annual revenue projections from Navigate, a data-driven consulting firm, the SEC and the Big Ten stand to make nearly twice as much as the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC by 2026. Forget about the Power 5. In other words: The Big Ten hoops community has seen this movie before and isn’t surprised by any of it at this stage. As we've seen in the last decade, a bit of (OK, a lot of) conference realignment hasn't significantly hurt college basketball. That is the direction of travel, anyway. The ACC grant of rights is through 2036 and keeps exiting teams from taking their media revenue to another conference. Thursday’s bombshell news that the two Los Angeles schools may be heading to a conference in Chicago elicits déjà vu to last summer’s SEC Media Days Oklahoma-Texas shockwave. It’s a beautiful, sunny Southern California Saturday in late November, and college football fans across the country tune into Fox for the biggest game of the day. They’re vindicated because in college athletics nobody is in charge, and conference realignment, it appears, was always destined to be a messy but lucrative dash toward super-conferences. “Let’s go back over the last 20 or 30 years — a lot of decisions have been made, with a lot of movement. Before that, the last changes to membership were the addition of Arizona and Arizona State in 1978. Which is absurd considering college hoops wields all the influence of college water polo when it comes to conference realignment.

USC Athletics | June 30, 2022. Story Links. LOS ANGELES – The University of Southern California will take the historic step of joining the Big Ten ...

We are grateful to her, and to Athletic Director Bohn, for solidifying USC's place in the national athletics landscape and serving the best interests of the university's students and other stakeholders. Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports. For more than two years, our athletics department has been unified behind our vision to be the most student-athlete centered program in the country. We look forward to competing these next two years in the Pac-12 and want to express our sincerest gratitude to the conference and its member institutions for decades of wonderful experiences. In analyzing a move to the Big Ten, we thoughtfully considered the prospect of additional travel for our student-athletes. We intend to end our membership in the Pac-12 conference when the Pac-12's current media rights agreement expires in August 2024. While today's decision is the culmination of extraordinary efforts by so many, it is only the beginning of our journey to the Big Ten. Though we may not have every question answered today, we will by August 2024. While we are fierce competitors on the field, we have a rich tradition of collaboration that we are excited to continue. "Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports," Athletic Director Mike Bohn said. We have worked hard over the past three years to ground university decisions in what is best for our students. The enhanced resources from this move will enable additional support for our student-athletes as well as benefit initiatives surrounding academics, accessibility and affordability. This decision was made after serious deliberation and analysis, and with great appreciation and respect for our Pac-12 colleagues with whom we have enjoyed a wonderful history and relationship.

From UCLA: Dear Bruin Community: For the past century, decisions about UCLA Athletics have always been guided by what is best for our student-athletes, first ...

We also will benefit from the stability and strength of the conference; the athletic caliber of Big Ten institutions; the increased visibility, exposure, and resources the conference will bring our student-athletes and programs; and the ability to expand engagement with our passionate alumni nationwide.” “Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports,” Athletic Director Mike Bohn said. Because of our unique circumstances, we believe this is the right move for the UCLA Bruins and the right time. We hope you will share our enthusiasm as we take this step to preserve the legacy, tradition and high standards that have epitomized the UCLA Bruins for the century that has passed and the centuries that lie ahead. Entry into the Big Ten will also help ensure that UCLA preserves and maintains all 25 current teams and more than 700 student-athletes in our program. 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.

After receiving written applications from the two universities, Big Ten Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren, alongside conference athletics directors and the ...

The Big Ten Conference has a lineage of transformation dating back to the historic meeting with seven university presidents on January 11, 1895, at the Palmer House in Chicago, Illinois. Those seven leaders created the blueprint for what grew into the modern intercollegiate sports model. “As the national leader in academics and athletics for over 126 years, the Big Ten Conference has historically evaluated its membership with the collective goal to forward the academic and athletic mission for student-athletes under the umbrella of higher education,” Commissioner Warren stated. The principles include academics and culture; student-athlete welfare, competition, and logistics; commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in sports; and financial sustainability.