5 Thoughts on USC and UCLA’s move to the Big Ten
The future of the college football landscape has changed forever
Honestly, after reading the breaking news tweet from Jon Kilner a few days ago, my reactions to this situation were mixed, as I’m sure everybody else’s was as well.
On one hand, you realize that college football is changing forever, and you have to roll with the punches or get left behind, but on the other hand, I can’t help feeling bad for the non-P5 programs.
Even though the PAC-12 will probably survive in some capacity (basically in name only), it will look totally different from the PAC-12 of old, with some Mountain West teams probably coming over to join, and maybe a program or two from another conference as well.
Although this is a good thing for lesser programs in the sense of money–as because of the SEC and Big Ten poaching programs, it has a trickle-down effect, and therefore makes lesser teams move up a tier and into a better conference with more money–it still deems these teams even more irrelevant than they were before.
Think about it. It was always about the Big Ten and SEC before. Those are the two conferences that have always essentially been at war with one another, clawing to stay on top, trying to one-up the other, and now, the rest of college football will take a severe hit.
The PAC-12 will cease to be relevant, and so will the ACC, and the Big-12. College football will turn into a mega-conference or “super-conference” with 20+ teams in the Big Ten and SEC, and the Big Ten and SEC will make a playoff between the two conferences with all of the other conferences deemed irrelevant.
The other conferences might have their own bowl games or something like that, but nobody will truly care about those, as the major focus will be on the results of these two mega-conferences.
All of the history and tradition of these PAC-12 schools from the “conference of champions” will now become part of the Big Ten’s history, which, doesn’t really make sense.
I feel bad for the lesser teams, as they might get more money in the end (which is what Deion Sanders has complained about not having for a while at Jackson State) but they will see even more transfers to other conferences.
You thought the transfer portal and NIL was crazy now?! Just wait until the end of the 2024-25 season ends.
Players will do one year at these low-tier schools, and if they do well enough to warrant some national attention from prestigious programs during the offseason (think tampering on a massive stage), they will transfer out, seeking to play for better programs and massive NIL deals.