The SEC’s reign as the lone ‘Super Conference,’ in college athletics may already be over before it even began.
Pac-12 powerhouses USC and UCLA, longtime conference stalwarts and two of the largest athletic departments on the west coast, are in conversations to join the Big Ten as early as 2024, according to multiple reports. The Mercury News’ Jon Wilner, who first reported the news, noted that the move “has not been finalized at the highest levels of power.” While it is unclear how far along the discussions are, it would dramatically reshape college athletics, solidly positioning the SEC and Big Ten atop the Power Five totem pole.
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Neither the Big Ten nor the Pac-12 immediately responded to requests for comment. USC and UCLA didn’t respond to request for comment.
The Big Ten and Pac-12 are poised for dramatically different financial futures, with the former expected to announce a massive multi-media rights deal by the end of July, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The Big Ten’s existing deals with ESPN and FOX run through the 2022-2023 academic year.
The conference’s new deal was already widely expected to far outpace its predecessors—with reports pegging its value at upwards of $1 billion annually—and help it keep pace with the eventual 16-team SEC that will include both Texas and Oklahoma.
The prospective additions of USC and UCLA will likely only make the Big Ten’s payday even bigger. With an expanded reach from the east to west coasts, the move could help the Big Ten prepare for additional realignment. It would also widen the already increasing financial gap between the conference and Pac- 12 and pit a pair of college athletics newcomers, Big Ten boss Kevin Warren and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff, on opposite sides in the fight for cash.
The Pac-12 wouldn’t be the only conference left behind, as the expansion maneuver would increase the gap between the SEC and Big Ten and all three remaining Power Five conferences.
The Pac-12 has been scrutinized as of late as the conference has fallen behind its peers financially. As members wait for the current media rights deals expire to expire in the summer of 2024, they’ve watched from the sidelines as conferences like the SEC and Big Ten have leapfrogged the Pac-12 with major revenue increases.
The Pac-12’s tax records for the 2021 fiscal year, which included the disrupted fall 2020 football season, put payouts for member…