With costs to run college athletic programs have climbed in recent years, exacerbated by the pandemic, moving to an even bigger conference provides more financial stability. The Pac-12 has floundered when it comes to TV as the conference’s network has struggled to gain footing while many of its games are played late at night. The SEC has a $3 billion deal with ESPN that’s set to kick in in 2024 and the Big Ten is currently negotiating a massive media rights deal. UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, right, runs the ball in for a touchdown as Southern California linebacker Ralen Goforth defends during the first half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. The Pac-12 had the lowest distribution number among Power Five schools, paying its member institutions $19.8 million in 2021. The Big Ten has tried to keep up and had a per-school distribution of $46.1 million last year. The SEC has become a college football behemoth that distributed $54.6 million to each of its member schools in the 2021 fiscal year. That’s exciting.”įor all the other benefits, the bottom line to the defections is the bottom line. UCLA is always national, but now we have the ability for student athletes to showcase their talent across the country. “They’re going compete at the highest level in a major elite conference in different time zones. “It’s huge for our student athletes, just from a national exposure perspective,” UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond said. While surprising, even to Pac-12 officials, the announcement Thursday gives the Los Angeles schools stability and exposure in a shifting collegiate sports landscape. The decisions by USC and UCLA to join the Big Ten in 2024 come roughly a year after Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. Sign up for our free newsletters and receive unparalleled coverage of Atlanta’s African American community in your inbox. “It may have larger ramifications, but it is a process that’s been ongoing.” “You might think this is more seismic because it’s involving wealthier schools - and arguably it is - but also it’s seismic because of the underpinnings of the system, the foundations of the system, are being challenged at a time when the financial structure is exploding,” Smith College economics professor Andrew Zimbalist said Friday. Not just because of the marquee schools involved, but because it happened at a time when the NCAA is looking to take a more decentralized approach to governing college athletics, handing more power to schools and conferences. ![]() The latest move, Southern California and UCLA bolting the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, could be part of a tectonic shift. ![]() The conference juggling has gone through ebbs and flows through the years since, from small schools bumping up to bigger leagues to power programs switching to other major conferences. Conference realignment in college sports has been going on since 1984, when the Supreme Court invalidated the NCAA’s national television contract for football.
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