Big Ten nabs UCLA, USC from Pac-12
In a surprising and seismic shift in college athletics, the Big Ten voted Thursday to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024.
The expansion to 16 teams will happen after the Pac-12’s current media rights contracts with Fox and ESPN expire and will make the Big Ten the first conference to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The news, which caught the Pac-12 off-guard, came almost a year after Oklahoma and Texas formally accepted invitations to leave the Big 12 and join the SEC in July 2025.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said USC and UCLA, both members of the Pac-12 and its previous iterations for nearly a century, submitted applications for membership and the league’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to add the Los Angeles schools.
“Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said. “We are excited that our values align with the league’s member institutions.”
The Big Ten is building on previous expansion into the nation’s largest media markets, and the move allows the conference to keep pace with the SEC as one of the most powerful entities in college sports.
The Big Ten will gain blue-blood programs in football (USC) and basketball (UCLA) and big-name brands that will enhance the value of the conference’s new media rights package currently being negotiated.
Losing flagship schools USC and UCLA is a major blow to the Pac-12, which has had a long and amicable relationship with the
Big Ten best exemplified by its Rose Bowl partnership.
The Pac-12’s next move is unknown, but adding schools to replace USC and UCLA is a possibility.
“We look forward to partnering with current and potential members to pioneer the future of college athletics together,” the Pac-12 said.
The Big Ten has expanded twice in the past 11 years, with Nebraska joining in 2011 and Maryland and Rutgers in 2014.
USC and UCLA fit the Big Ten’s academic profile. Both schools are among the 65 members of the Association of American Universities, which is made up of top research universities. All Big Ten schools except Nebraska are members.
USC and UCLA stand to significantly increase their revenues. The Pac-12 distributed only $19.8 million per school in fiscal year 2021, by far the least among Power 5 conferences. The Big Ten’s perschool distribution was $46.1 million, second only to the SEC’s $54.6 million.
USC President Carol L. Folt said she and university leaders considered the coast-to-coast travel that will come with competing in the Big Ten. Nebraska is the westernmost school in the conference now, and Lincoln is almost 1,500 miles from Los Angeles. Rutgers, the easternmost Big Ten school, is a nearly 5 ¹/2-hour flight from Los Angeles.
“We are fortunate we can spend the next two years working with the conference on travel and scheduling plans,” Folt said.
The Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC last August formed an alliance and said the 41 members would take a collaborative approach to charting the future of athletics. Less than a year later, the future of the alliance appears bleak.