Last night, like thousands of nights before it, USC was part of the Pac-12 conference when I went to bed. This morning, I woke up, came downstairs, and immediately crashed. When I finally woke up for good this afternoon, USC was a member of the Big Ten.
wtf?
Well, at least it doesn't impact water polo.
Or beach volleyball
Yup.
Wilner issued a cryptic tweet at 9:34 am, "I believe the world is about to change". Cowherd followed at 9:48 am, "🤐". Canzano noted that not a single one of the six ADs he called would pick up the phone this morning.
Wilner followed up a few hours later at 12:21 pm, "Source: USC, UCLA could top 100m annually in media rights in the Big Ten". That's when sports Twitter went nuts and others followed up with their own sources.
There's a panic going on right now. Without USC/UCLA, no Los Angeles media market for the PAC-12 just as it's about to enter media negotiations for 2024 season. No pair of teams outside of the B1G and SEC can replace. SDSU and FSU diminish the average value of the PAC-12.
Most expect UW and UO to follow USC/UCLA and apply for B1G, and most think they'll be accepted given their relatively high brand and academic value, but also, pulls media markets of the PNW. Maybe B1G is interested in adding Cal and Stanford (doesn't seem likely, though).
The PAC-12 appears to have an end date: August 2024.
Oh sorry, wrong tweet from Wilner that triggered everyone. It was his 10:23 am tweet stating, "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."
I would think they might see Stanford and Cal as nice gets academically (The Big !0 still cares about that) and expand the west coast. I;d assume their dream get is Notre Dame but if that is unlikely
I guess Stanford maybe has the Bay Area media market, plus some big tech alumni donors?
But yeah, I think Stanford, Cal, Utah, and ASU are basically screwed. They'll either stick around in a rump Pac-12 that will pay a lot less money in media rights revenue, join other leagues that won't pay much better (and probably worse), or go independent with all the risks. Maybe the Big 12 could invite some of them in, but I doubt it - they don't bring much to the table.
Nothing is predictable as there are so many variables, but if the PAC-12 breaks up, WSU and OSU are the schools most likely to be the biggest losers.
They have neither the AAU affiliation that the B1G covets, nor are they a big draw with a big base with big donors. On top of that, in the eyes of the B1G, OSU and WSU duplicate the media markets of their bigger siblings, Oregon and Washington.
They will be forced to join the MW if they can't convince the Big-12 that they're valuable enough. If that happens, their revenue will shrink by more than 75% and their athletic budgets will have to follow.
Most of the commentary I've heard from WSU fans has been pretty distressed over it. They're talking about how the program was barely holding on with existing Pac-12 money - if that goes away, funding for football will crash, funding for additional collegiate sports will crater (they get cross-subsidized), and it will be devastating for the local economy in its college town as fan interest wanes and dries up.
If being $120 milllion in the hole is "barely holding on".
Program's still going, of sorts.
Although all of the WSU fans I've heard about this are in despair, talking about how it will kill the program and hurt the town, etc.
New PAC12:
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Cal-Berkeley
Stanford
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
Colorado
Colorado State
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Nevada-Reno
Nevada-Las Vegas
Boise State
I'm blissfully ignorant of all things football.
It sounds like this all boils down to a sports broadcasting money shuffle?
Asking for a friend who don't pay any attention to this stuff
It's about money. USC and UCLA will get a lot more money in the Big 10 than they will in the Pac-12 from media revenue.
Well, if the athletes may shift from school to school, might as well let schools go from conference to conference…
The transfer portal is a thing.
The Big 10 now has 16 teams in it. The Big 12 has 10 teams. The Atlantic Coast Conference has teams from Indiana and Kentucky.
Exhibit 742 that our empire is collapsing.
Humor my illiteracy, why do they call it Big 10 at all? Is there a Lesser 10?
I thought “Big” was a euphemism referring to the fact that they were overweight. Midwest schools, right? Kind of like saying “corn fed”.
Midwest football powerhouses, old as steam. Listen to Michigan's fight song, which includes the words "Champions of the West"--because it dates from when they were in the West, so far as football was concerned.
And Michigan became the Champions of the West by beating the University of Chicago, which really was a football powerhouse and an original member of the Big Ten. They were replaced in 1949 by Michigan State.
Chicago now plays football in the same conference as my alma mater.
I hope the Redhawks beat the shit out of those Maroons.
I cannot find error in your psychohistory equations.
$28M ---> $100M+ annually.
Whew
At least Lori Loughlin's kids can still row on the Great Lakes
I see what you did there. 😊😊
Olivia Jade did nothing wrong.
I stared perplexedly at video during the news on the morning March 29th, 1984 while Mayflower vans cornered out of Owings Mills parking lots heading west.
Welcome to the club.
Were you crying in your Natty Boh all night long?
Yup den went downy sure.
At least you have our lord & savior Adley Rutschman now.
This is some kind of "guy thing", right?
It's all about the Benjamins.
I assume the Supreme Court will stop that, if there's money involved.
No, this is money for rich people. That's just fine. It's the little guy they'll screw over.
What's it all about? Schools have bills to pay.
For example, USC is paying football coach Lincoln Riley $110 million. Not bad for a government employee. A look here at the coach's new $17.2 million mansion in Los Angeles.
https://www.dirt.com/gallery/athletes/football-players/lincoln-riley-house-rancho-palos-verdes-1203462291/lincolnrileyhouse_pv3/
And all that's nothing compared to the $1.1 billion that USC agreed to pay to hundreds of women to settle sexual misconduct lawsuits against campus gynecologist, Dr. George Tyndall. Your tax dollars at work.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/us/usc-settlement-george-tyndall.html
So much rotten in the world of higher education, it's hard to get too upset about leaving for the Big Ten. The schools would leave for the LIV if they got an offer.
Uh, sorry to be Banquo's ghost here, and yes, they'd all join a league on Mars if there was more dough in it for them, but Southern Cal is very private.
Indeed. Brain fart here. UCLA, otoh, is public, like other Big Ten schools (except Northwestern). That explains why Bruin coach Chip Kelly gets a mere $3.5 mil per year.
USC is a private university. No government employees.
The $110M was a rumor, but even if it were that much, it most certainly was a 10-year contract or thereabouts. You'll be able to find out the exact details when USC releases its 990 for TY 2022, next year, where non-profits have to list their highest paid employees.
Yes. I goofed on that. The way it works, his salary (rumored or otherwise) will be an issue only in weeks after the Trojans lose. As long as he wins, he'll be the toast of the town.
I'm quite certain that at USC, the salary doesn't matter. It all comes down to expectations of getting back into the CFP.
As a sidenote, UCLA athletics has a big mountain of debt (https://bityl.co/D0Tp), so they're the ones who needed to make the move to the big cash pile. Just one season at B1G and their debt is mostly wiped out.
USC is private, so they had to use their own money (or their own insurance) to pay off their sexual misconduct suits.
Read it and weep. USC will now be in bed with "THE" Ohio State University.
You mean they'll get slaughtered every year by Ohio State.
One day soon the Big Ten will merge with the SEC, it's inevitable. The other league will be Notre Dame and Navy.
People are saying the Big 10 and the SEC will both expand to 35 teams. Then they will need each other to build the hype when their respective champions play each other for the big prize.
They will never expand to 35 teams each.
The B1G and SEC are turning into mega conferences composed of the highest value schools to maximize media rights earnings.
There just aren't many remaining schools outside of the current pair that have strong value: ND, Clemson, FSU, Miami, Washington, Oregon. After that, there are a dozen tweeners, but that's it. Once you get into the tweeners, you're talking about a dilution of per-school earnings.
Right or wrong, it's all about money, power, and prestige. If a school and its alumni prioritize academics over football, the mega conferences are probably a turn-off. College sports at the upper levels is fundamentally changing, and maybe not for the better, but it is changing.
If college football were smart, they would divorce the gridiron from NCAA D1A, & have 16 ten team conferences, by region, playing home & home inconference, then the 16 regular season champs would be seeded in a tournament.
Apparently it's been a long time coming. The previous commissioner of the Pac-12 negotiated a bad media deal in 2011 that locked the league into persistently low media revenue compared to its rivals (and bungled the handling of the Pac-12 network), so now they're leaving to join a league with better teams and much more money.
Assuming the Pac-12 goes to pieces without the big LA media market, I imagine Oregon and Washington will be the next to go. Washington's got a big media market, and Oregon has a nationally successful team plus Phil Knight's money. Maybe Stanford will find a home somewhere for the Bay Area media market.
Bummer for everyone else. I wonder if Utah will stay in the rump Pac-12, rejoin the Mountain West Conference, or go independent. I can't really imagine any of the other super-leagues inviting them over (they and Colorado were both consolation prizes after the previous attempt to create the Pac-16 failed). Neither the Mountain West Conference or rump Pac-12 are going to offer nearly as much money, and being independent when there are super-leagues is much less useful.
Stanford to replace BYU in the West Coast Conference.
But unlike BYU, drop football & not worry about having to be an independent on the gridiron.
Excuse me, but can we move on to cat blogging please?
Now let's all sit down and have a watch of "The Male Animal"
https://youtu.be/KFebKLS44GM
I'm old enough to remember when USC vs. Notre Dame was a game that meant something.
@golack
All these big-time sports contests "mean" something, just not what we think they mean. Hint: It's the money, nothing else. Elsewhere in this thread someone mentions "football teams with schools attached." That describes it perfectly. I say put the players on salary, waive academic requirements, and allow them to play until they're ready to retire. Then we'll see some football.
The logistics here are going to be horrifying. I suspect that non-revenue sports for USC and UCLA that compete in the Pac12 will become clubs with the change.
Consider that the nearest conference games (aside from against each other) are in Nebraska. The farthest is Rutgers just outside NYC. The athletes will suffer.
The PAC-12 men’s soccer league consists of Oregon State, Washington, Stanford, Cal, UCLA and San Diego State.
We're headed down to two: The Union Conference and The Confederacy Conference. Just changes the names now and be done with it.
I think the necessary context here is that that players can now be semi-openly paid for their services. The cost of running a top college football or basketball program is shooting upward. This move is USC and UCLA's bid to secure the revenue for a shot a relevance.
I have a somewhat contrarian stance that these reshufflings are not a bad thing.
Right now, lots of programs can operate in the black and be pretty good. There is going to be serious consolidation of top talent in the schools that can pay for it. The top teams will get better and the merely pretty good teams will get worse. The outcome will be two or three dozen schools all-in on the "football team with a school attached" model. In my giddy optimism, I hope that this will open up space for the rest to put a bit more effort into being good schools.
Looking forward to those crisp fall afternoons enjoying the classic Big 10 matchup of USC versus Rutgers.
I'm looking forward to USC and UCLA coming to Madison, State College, Iowa City or Columbus on a 15 degree November afternoon.
I look forward to Cincinnati rooters showing up at Ohio State-UCLA basketball games to piss in Mick Cronin's Gatorade.
There has always been a lot of complaint about the selfishness of the NCAA and how it exploits players, but it's the individual schools, especially the big-market ones, who control things through their conferences, which are mostly the entities which make the media contracts. This is another example of how this works. The NCAA is basically a front organization.
Of course the money that the schools get, minus the humongous salaries of coaches and staffs, should go towards education, reducing tuition. How is that working?
Oh, well, at least the student-athletes will get paid more from thar big pile of money...wait, what?
Among NCAA 'letes, the top NIL earners are men's football, then women's basketball & volleyball.
I wonder who will be the first athlete to have an (official) OnlyFans. Don't laugh, but a football player or men's baseball or basketball player isn't out of the question.
I'm not sure why any college would want to join an athletic conference that demonstrably cannot count.