Big Ten Conference
ROSEMONT, IL (WSAU) — Get ready for classic Big Ten showdowns involving Trojans and Bruins.
Multiple reports indicate that the University of Southern California and the University of California-Los Angeles are both in the final stages of notifying the PAC-12 that they will leave the conference, while also preparing to apply for membership in the Big Ten.
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
Those reports indicate that the deal could be announced within the next day, with both schools expected to meet with Big Ten membership to begin finalizing details. If all goes as planned, the two Los Angeles-based schools could begin showing up on B1G schedules by 2024.
The move would leave the PAC 12, a league that’s already considered an outlier among the so-called ‘Power Five’ conferences because of its lack of a lucrative TV deal and the limited distribution of the PAC 12 Network, without two of its landmark schools. The move also comes one year after the last conference realignment surprise, which saw Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. A timeline for that deal has not been finalized.
Both USC and UCLA were original members of the Athletic Association of Western Universities, the forerunner to the Pacific 8. The conference expanded to 10 with the addition of Arizona and Arizona State, and then 12 with Colorado and Utah joining the league during the last round of conference realignment in 2010.
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