Stunning news:

OFFICIAL: USC will join the Big Ten Conference in 2024.

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) June 30, 2022

Stunning news, but in basketball:

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

Broken today by Jon Wilner, at least two, and potentially more major Pac12 schools will join the Big Ten in two years. Clearly timed to coincide with the Big Ten renegotiating its TV rights deals, and meant to compete with the SEC's addition of Texas and Oklahoma, the move turns the Big Ten into a coast-to-coast conference of 16, and adds blue bloods in football and basketball. It also renders the Pac (back to) Ten something akin to what the Big XII will be when their two marquee programs leave in 2025, and almost certainly will precipitate more realignment.

The Big Ten had a bylaw that any schools they add be in neighboring states, but that was swiftly gotten around. Both schools were part of the Pac and its previous iteration, the Pacific Coast Conference, going back a century.

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What does it mean for the Big Ten? Schedule? Divisions?

It's way too early to say, because they're probably going to at least try to add more teams while the iron is hot.

Will they play the Big Ten championship at the Rose Bowl?

It's a good idea. I'd rather they play Showcase games there, especially since adding programs dilutes the old rivalries, meaning more good games won't be played in a 9-game schedule?

Does this get Notre Dame?

Notre Dame now has its biggest rival in the same conference as most of its other rivals, but it's still not as likely as you think. During its desperation to play during the pandemic, the Irish signed a deal with the ACC that goes through 2036 and stipulates if they join any conference it has to be the ACC. Their NBC deal is still quite lucrative, and their fanbase regularly votes for remaining Independent now matter how much of a technicality it rests on. The ACC's new chairman Jim Phillips has two kids at Notre Dame and kicked off his tenure with courtship.

I don't know the details of the ACC's deal, but it's conceivable that it has an out, or that their lawyers could find one, if the ACC was to fall apart or dramatically fall in value. Say, if the Big Ten poached some of its teams.

Who else could they add?

Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona are AAU schools and control large television markets. In the ACC, Duke, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, and Virginia qualify. Kansas is the last. Miami is a good enough school to make an exception, since they have Nebraska. FSU..?

To peal USC and UCLA off the Pac is such a power move I can't put it past them to approach any of these, or even swallow their favorite parts of those leagues whole, reform the college football faith, declare a Fylkirate, and hold a great blot.

Or they could swipe Washington and call it a day. I don't know.

And dump Rutgers?

No. There's no way this happens, sorry.

Can they be induced to add hockey?

Don't know. Good idea. UPDATE: UCLA has entertained the idea:

Here's a link for a more in-depth look into a potential move into D1.https://t.co/i3DFFqAnZW

— UCLA Ice Hockey (@UCLAIceHockey) July 1, 2022

Baseball/Softball?

The Big Ten could host a tournament in LA I guess, but I don't think this helps them shift the balance of power.

What does this do to college football?

More ads, for one. For the Big Ten, owning Saturdays means they can charge more for the last big thing on broadcast television. The broadcasters who pony up will in turn increase advertising as far as they possibly can, because to not do that means they're taking the hit themselves. The ACC and Pac-12 and Big12 will also take hits when their TV deals come up, as the networks can fill the majority of their national slots with SEC and Big Ten deals.

I do not think a landscape with the SEC and Big Ten hovering above quasi-majors and mid-majors is stable, though a Pac Ten without its LA teams can certainly survive. I also think expanding to the Pacific breaks the seal on any geographic limits, and that the SEC wouldn't limit themselves. Ultimately I foresee expansion continuing until most of what we consider the Power 5 are playing in divisions not so different from historically regional conferences, now under the auspices of two conferences paying different amounts of lip service to academics.

The schools are already concerned that NIL is changing the fundamental financial structures of college athletics. This was an expressed concern when the SEC announced its addition of Texas and Oklahoma. There is at least a high possibility that gaining control on the NIL market is going to end with the players signing contracts. At the very least donations that previously went to the programs for building and administration and doodads will be diverted to the players, with the all-important TV dollars the largest piece of the that remains in the schools' hands.

The upshot for Michigan is they're no longer the only other blueblood in a conference dominated by their rival, and it's much better to be a big school on the inside right now than a not quite as big school on the outside

Man with multiple Michigan tattoos to eat hat

If this happens I will eat a hat https://t.co/aP2WYefd2t

— BUM CHILLUPS AKA SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) June 30, 2022