USC and UCLA are officially headed to the Big Ten.
News broke Thursday afternoon that the traditional PAC-12 powers were in talks to join the B1G, and it’s now official. The conference announced Thursday night that the Trojans and Bruins have agreed to join the B1G and will begin play in 2024. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
The Big Ten announced today that the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles will become conference members effective August 2, 2024, with competition to begin in all sports the 2024-25 academic year. https://t.co/DnwNMJSEe7
— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) July 1, 2022
It’s still hard for me to believe this is real, but here we are! Imagine telling someone just a couple years ago that USC and UCLA would join the B1G.
Nobody would have believed you. Yet, here we are and this is a very real situation. UCLA and USC are joining the B1G in a couple years. It’s nothing short of incredible.
OFFICIAL: USC will join the Big Ten Conference in 2024.
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) June 30, 2022
The B1G is also going to print money going forward. The conference goes from coast to coast, dominates the biggest TV markets in America and the next TV deal could be worth several billion annually.
The SEC made a big move by adding Texas and Oklahoma, but this is next level given the financial implications. I’m not sure how the B1G can be touched when it comes to money after this.
𝗕𝗜𝗚 news! UCLA is joining the Big Ten Conference at the start of the 2024-25 season! 👀
➡️: https://t.co/ygoY70o2bo#GoBruins pic.twitter.com/Cgj5orGhiI
— UCLA Athletics (@UCLAAthletics) June 30, 2022
While there are opinions all over the place on this situation, I’ll just say that we’re entering a new era of college sports, and as a B1G man, I can’t wait to see how it all shakes out.