Two Pac-12 Football Teams to Leave for Big Ten Conference

Two big college football teams are making a move that will change the sport. According to CBS Sports, UCLA and USC will leave the Pac-12 Conference and join the Big Ten as early as the 2024 season. The move is not official as of this writing, but an announcement will likely happen this week. 

According to ESPN, the reason UCLA and USC are making the move has to do with competitiveness, brand and the overall landscape of the future of the sport. “USC and UCLA have to make the decisions to position them best for the long term,” a source familiar with the move told ESPN. “The future is so uncertain we need to be operating from a position of strength.”

This move comes nearly one year after Texas and Oklahoma announced they are leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. That move is set to happen ahead of the 2025 season. If UCLA and USC officially make the move to the Big Ten, it would give the conference 16 teams, which would be the same number as the SEC once Texas and Oklahoma officially join. The Big 12 Conference will have 12 teams with BYU, Cincinnati, Houston and UCF getting into the fold once Texas and Oklahoma leave. 

With all the shifting in college football, does that mean super conferences are coming? “Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC caught me off guard,” North Carolina head coach Mack Brown said on The Paul Finebaum Show last year, per Saturday Down South. “I think we are finally going to see the mega-conferences that people have talked about for years. I don’t think the 12-team Playoff will probably fly with all of these changes. I think that’ll be pushed behind and we’ll start looking at it again. I’d like to see us go to (an 8 team Playoff) instead of 10. I do think we’ll see a group of ‘super conferences’ in our lifetime.”

USC is one of the top college football teams of all time. The Trojans have won 11 national titles and have had seven players win the Heisman Trophy. UCLA is also a proud football program that won 17 conference titles and one national championship. The Bruins hold the record for the most consecutive bowl wins with eight.