USC and UCLA to the Big Ten?
And you thought the Big Ten was just going to let the SEC have all the fun.
Pac-12 insider of insiders Jon Wilner shook up the world with his tweet that the Big Ten was going to expand with USC and UCLA – or, at least, it was close to making this happen.
That’s it. That’s the move. That’s EXACTLY what the biggest, richest, and most powerful conference in sports had to do to push back against the SEC’s landing of Oklahoma and Texas – and I still won’t believe Texas is actually doing this and not going to the Big Ten, or staying put, until I actually see it.
And now everyone will go crazy wondering what happens next. What’s next for the Big Ten, and the SEC, and the Big 12, and Notre Dame, and the Pac-12, and for college football?
Big Ten. Now what does it do?
You mean besides warm up the cash printing machine?
1) It adds two powerhouse academic institutions. UCLA instantly becomes the second-best school in the Big Ten behind Northwestern, and USC is right there with Michigan.
2) They were the two biggest schools that made sense considering Notre Dame still isn’t a real possibility and the ACC is all but off the table with its awful Grant of Rights deal locking in the member institutions.
3) You want to play, SEC? Yeah, having Houston and Atlanta and parts of Florida is good, but Los Angeles, Chicago, New York – or whatever New York is in the college football landscape – most of Pennsylvania, Detroit, all of Ohio, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee.
4) Coast-to-coast. The Big Ten now is a truly national conference from sea to shining sea. The SEC is regionalized to one section of the country. However, the Big Ten – for all its big things and exposure – isn’t going to make so much as a dent in the SEC markets.
5) North Carolina. It makes too much sense. For all of the talk about the SEC taking over with world domination, get North Carolina and USC and UCLA, and … Notre Dame?
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Pac-12. Now what does it do?
Commissioner George Kliavkoff came in talking about expansion, and being forward-thinking, and seemingly being ready to expand the brand, but now has has to piece together the markets to make up for losing these two monster schools.
There are a few moves the conference can make right away to help ease the pain a little bit.
1) First, forgive for overusing this bit, but it works – you can’t replace Giambi and Damon, but you…