USC, UCLA in process of joining Big Ten
UCLA and Southern California are planning to leave the Pac12 for the Big Ten Conference in a seismic
change that could lead to another major realignment of college sports.
A person who has been briefed on the discussions between USC, UCLA and the Big Ten said the schools have taken steps to request an invitation to join the conference. The person spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity because the schools’ talks with the Big Ten
have not been made public.
The move would come as soon as 2024, after the Pac-12’s current media rights contracts with Fox and ESPN expire, and increase the size of the Big Ten to 16 schools.
The decision by the Los Angeles schools — two of the NCAA’S
most decorated athletic programs — comes almost a year after
Oklahoma and Texas formally accepted invitations to join the
Southeastern Conference in July 2025.
The Big Ten would become the first conference to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific and would build
on previous expansion
into the nation’s largest media markets.
Big Ten leadership, including the council
of presidents and chancellors, would
still have to sign off on extending an invitation to the two schools.
The Big Ten has expanded twice in recent
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.
The move to the Big Ten would greatly enhance
USC and UCLA’S 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 per-school distribution was $46.1 million, second only to
the Southeastern Conference’s $54.6 million.
The Pac-12 has had difficulty getting its conference television
network untracked while the Big Ten Network is the most established of the conference networks.
USC and UCLA would be taking a step
up in football, both in visibility and competition.
“Pac-12 After Dark” televised games that
kick off in the middle to late evenings in most of the country
have made it difficult for the conference to get exposure. The Pac12 has had teams in
the College Football Playoff just twice —
Oregon (2014 season) and Washington (2016).