USC and UCLA are in advanced talks to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024, confirmed Nicole Auerbach from The Athletic. Big Ten presidents and athletic principals held a meeting last night on the subject and a message could come today, with schools expected to present official documents on Thursday, according to a source. Pac-12 reporter John Wilner first announced that the two schools plan to leave as early as 2024, but that the move “has not been finalized at the highest levels of government.”
Numerous sources have told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic that the two Pac-12 schools are the ones turning to the Big Ten for a move.
The Big Ten are currently negotiating their next media rights deal. His existing deals with ESPN and Fox are being implemented in the next academic year, 2022-23. The current members of Pac-12 have been together since 2011, when Colorado and Utah joined the league from the Big 12 and the Mountain West, respectively. Prior to that, the last changes in membership were the addition of Arizona and the state of Arizona in 1978.
If the moves take place, it will mark the second consecutive summer that a surprising rearrangement of football blue-blooded leads to a seismic change in the sports landscape at the college. Last July, Texas and Oklahoma announced they would join the SEC.
This is an evolving story. There is more.
Follow our live coverage of the reaction and analysis of Big Ten’s plan to add USC and UCLA.
(Photo: Richard Maxon / USA Today)
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