(01-21-2023 03:41 PM)World Wide Swag Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 10:11 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 09:38 AM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  It's going to work. This is the BIG getting into bed with two of the single biggest brand names in college sports and pushing its footprint into the second largest city and most populus state. This isn't like the B12 having multiple schools stranded on multiple islands - Hello UCF, WVU, BYU. Now to the OP question. I'm sure that if for some reason it does not work out, the BIG will allow USCLA to buy themselves out.
I do think that eventually the BIG will bring in four more PAC schools and form a six team PAC Division in a twenty-four school conference.

I agree. I know the traditional fans want/wish/hope for this not to work… but it’s going to work insanely well. The Big Ten just added a critical massive market that’s the entertainment capital of the world (and actually has a real history of caring about college sports, unlike the NYC market), a recruiting hotbed for all sports, a major center for Big Ten alums, and ultimately, USC and UCLA playing the other big brands in the Big Ten in football and basketball (along with excellence in all sports across the board). LA is a market whose economy is literally fueled by TV production and the Big Ten just created a national college football TV product. It’s the single most valuable move the Big Ten could have possibly made outside of adding Notre Dame. I don’t know why it’s OK for the SEC to go after UT and OU while the Big Ten is supposed to be OK with thinking smaller with schools like Kansas and Colorado. The SEC may still have the on-field football advantage, but the Big Ten now has a lock on the media and cultural power centers of the US. The latter is why the Big Ten keeps over-performing in its media deals compared to the SEC and the USC/UCLA expansion is really the capstone on that point.

I don't think anyone is disputing that they're going to make more money and access bigger markets. But USC and UCLA are putting themselves at a considerable competitive disadvantage. Think about if USC makes the conference championship, they have to travel ~2,000 miles to play Michigan or Ohio State in Chicago or Indy for a shot at a bye in the CFP? That will be a road game for them.

I get it more for UCLA because their bottom line was hurting. But this will cost USC berths and byes in the CFP. If you're a USC fan, are you OK with that knowing that your admin is getting $25M or so more per year from your media deal to spend on who knows what while you're missing out on the CFP and traveling to West Lafayette and Iowa City for road games instead of Seattle and Phoenix? That seems like it could get old fast. USC would have been able to stamp their ticket to the expanded CFP virtually every year going forward in the Pac.

How many NY6 bowls has USC been to? Only 3. They've won one Pac 12 title since 2008. The Pac hasn't been in the CFP since 2016.

What you are saying flies completely in the face of what has really happened.