USC and UCLA are exploring a move from the Pac-12 Conference to the Big Ten Conference as early as 2024, according to multiple media reports.The jump would be the latest major disruption of the college sports landscape, which has been altered by players gaining rights to name, image and likeness (NIL) revenue and the rise of the five conferences in the top tier of the ultra-lucrative sport of football.
While the realignment would apply to all sports, football controls the vast majority of the dollars flowing to schools from media rights.Both USC and UCLA have kept mum about their plans, but the move has been reported by numerous outlets as effectively a done deal.
Bay Area News Group had the first report about the reworking of the conference. It would certainly decimate the West Coast’s Pac-12, which has struggled in recent years but historically has been one of the elite conferences in college sports.
Without two large schools in the nation’s No. 2 media market, the remaining roster would be headed by Oregon, Cal-Berkeley and Stanford in terms of national recognition.A shift would also have significant media business ramifications.
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