Bill Walton, Troy Aikman React to UCLA's Impending Move to Big Ten
The Bruins' move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten has been set in stone for just over two months, and two of the school's most prominent athletic alumni are finally sharing their two cents.
Former UCLA men's basketball All-American Bill Walton was asked about UCLA's impending conference switch by The Post Game on Aug. 25, and his response was brief.
"I love UCLA," Walton said, before hesitating, smiling and nodding at the camera for a few seconds.
Walton may have completed his undergraduate degree at UCLA, but he has strong ties elsewhere in the conference. Walton got an MBA from Stanford and his son, Luke, went to Arizona. Since July 2012, Walton has been a color announcer for Pac-12 basketball games on ESPN and Pac-12 Networks.
While he may not call too many Pac-12 football games, former UCLA football quarterback Troy Aikman is a veteran of the sports broadcast world as well. Aikman was a guest alongside Joe Buck on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast on Wednesday, and he spent most of the episode talking about his move to ESPN's Monday Night Football booth.
Towards the tail end of the interview, however, Aikman was asked about his thoughts on UCLA moving to the Big Ten, and he was not particularly celebratory with his choice of words.
"I don't even know what to make of anything that's happening in college athletics," Aikman said. "I'm just not a fan of what's happened."
As his comment would suggest, Aikman's frustrations go far beyond conference realignment. He spoke at length about the damage he thought reclassifying and NIL have already done to the collegiate landscape.
"I've always believed that athletes should get paid something, I've always been a proponent for that," Aikman said. "It's just the way that it's gone about, like I said, there was just no guardrails and now it's trying to get the toothpaste back in the tube."
Walton and Aikman's hesitant acceptance of their alma mater leaving the Pac-12 was a sentiment apparently shared by many other alumni. Records obtained by 247Sports in August revealed that several donors, faculty and other members of the UCLA community replied to chancellor Gene Block and athletic director Martin Jarmond's internal announcement with disapproval back in late June.
The UC Board of Regents and California Governor Gavin Newsom have publicly come out against the move themselves, and while it appears unlikely the school will change course before 2024, the dissenters have certainly found a strong voice over the summer.
Meanwhile, UCLA moving from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten resulted in the school being a part of their new conference's record-breaking media rights deal with FOX, NBC and CBS. As a result, the Bruins' athletic department could end up crawling out of over $100 million of debt in a matter of a couple years without needing to cut any Olympic or non-revenue sports teams.
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