Source: USC and UCLA are planning to leave for the Big Ten as early as 2024. Move *has not been finalized* at the highest levels of power.
— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) June 30, 2022
The move has not been finalized, according to Wilner, while Dellenger and other national reporters followed up by confirming discussions were underway.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the California schools “are exploring a move to the Big Ten,” and he added more context.
“The schools have been researching the move for the past few months, and the financial disparity between Big Ten revenue and projected Pac-12 revenue proved the biggest factor,” Thamel wrote.
Sources: Can confirm @wilnerhotline that USC and UCLA are exploring a move to the Big Ten. The schools have been researching the move for the past few months, and the financial disparity between Big Ten revenue and projected Pac-12 revenue proved the biggest factor.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 30, 2022
Thamel also reported the deal could be done and announced in the next 24 hours.
An explosion in revenue — primarily from television — has reshaped the college athletics landscape over the last 20 years, leading to multiple waves of conference expansion.
The most recent major move came last year when Texas and Oklahoma reached an agreement to leave the Big 12 for the SEC.
That means the latter conference will swell to 16 teams when those moves are finalized in the coming years.
Adding two more teams would allow the Big Ten to match that number, but the SEC and Big Ten are already far ahead of the others in terms of TV money, and that is not expected to change any time soon.
Illinois-based firm Navigate projected earlier this year the difference in money the Big Ten and SEC distribute to their members will grow from roughly $57 million and $54 million per school now to $94 million and $105 million, respectively, by the end of the 2020s.
The SEC has a new, lucrative TV deal upcoming with ESPN/ABC while the Big Ten is expected to announce its own new deals soon.
Meanwhile, payouts to the members of the Pac-12 are projected to rise from $34 million to $56 million.
Dellenger reported USC and UCLA were proactive in light of this and reached out to the Big Ten about a partnership.
Much like Texas & OU with the SEC, sources tell @SINow that USC & UCLA approached B1G with a message: We plan to leave the Pac-12; do you want us or not?
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) June 30, 2022
“You have to be a moron to not think about it,” B1G source says. “They would have gone somewhere else if we said ‘no.’”
The Big Ten is the oldest conference of Division I schools. It formed in 1896 as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty and later became known as the Western Conference.
Chicago, Illinois, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Michigan and Wisconsin were charter members with Indiana, Iowa and Ohio State joining within the first two decades.
Chicago dropped out when it chose to de-emphasize sports in the 1930s, and Michigan State joined in 1950 to bring the conference to 10 teams.
Penn State joined in 1993 with Nebraska following in 2011. Maryland and Rutgers joined in 2014 to bring the league to 14 teams and increase its presence on the East Coast.
USC and UCLA have a long history with the Big Ten thanks to their conference’s partnership with that league and the Rose Bowl.
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