Kevin Warren: Seamless Integration of UCLA, USC to Big Ten a 'Can't-Miss Opportunity'
MINNEAPOLIS — During Big Ten Football Media Days back in July, the future addition of both UCLA and USC to the conference was a hot topic. But now, more than two months later, league commissioner Kevin Warren was able to speak further on the process of integration on Tuesday.
As part of his opening press conference to kickstart Big Ten Basketball Media Days inside the Target Center, Warren said that the seamless integration of the Bruins and Trojans alongside the current 14 programs in the conference is among the league's top priorities, especially with a new media rights deal on the horizon. The two west-coast universities are set to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in the fall of 2024.
"The biggest thing right now and what we have come up with is what we're calling some of our can't-miss priorities," Warren said. "One of them is to make sure we flawlessly integrate our new media partners, but the other one is to make sure we flawlessly integrate USC and UCLA into the Big Ten Conference."
With a nationwide market soon to be the norm for the Big Ten — which will soon span coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to Piscataway, N.J. — there arise travel concerns for the league's student-athletes. Warren addressed the logistics of the issue and assured that questions regarding the strengthening of academic and athletic opportunities are being answered.
"Our student-athletes have been our number one priority," Warren said. "And during this integration period, they will continue to be our number one priority. You'll be able to see it in how we schedule, how we handle multi-team events, the experiences they will be able to have by now being able to travel to play different institutions across the country."
Warren mentioned back in July that the Big Ten would be open to even further expansion in the coming years, but didn't offer any more insight Tuesday as to how the conference will approach adding more programs.
"In the climate we're in right now in college athletics, you also have to be mindful of expansion," Warren said. "But our priority is just to make sure that we take care of our 14 member institutions now from a basketball standpoint, from a conference standpoint, and that we do everything that we possibly can to make sure we flawlessly integrate UCLA and USC.
"We have a lot of work to do. It's one thing to negotiate contracts, to make an announcement, but it's another thing to actually get the work done. That's what we're focused on right now."
