UCLA Football: How The Bruins are Navigating the Big 10 Move
Last year it was announced that UCLA and USC would leave the Pac-12 in 2024 to join the Big 10 in a move that shook up the athletic conference.
With similar moves happening across the country with Big 12 schools Texas and Oklahoma set to join the SEC in 2024, many speculated how both Southern California schools would adjust to the new environment.
UCLA athletic director Martin Jarmond addressed these concerns with optimism that the Bruins are ready to adjust to these changes.
“We have to get it right. From day one, we want to be competitive at the highest level in the Big Ten. What that means is really trying to optimize everything that goes into being competitive. … When you make a move like this, there are so many moving parts that you really have to bring the focus inward and just do one thing at a time. ‘OK, what’s most important?’ And you just go down that list.”
via Martin Jarmond in an interview with the Athletic
With fellow conference rival Colorado also voting to leave the Pac-12 for the Big-12, the discourse around the former conference's stability in the coming years has raised massive questions around the future of college football in the western U.S.
Jarmond said that his plan for moving conferences would ultimately benefit student athletes and help them compete for titles across all of UCLA's respective sports.
In addition to these competitive advantages, the mental health resources at the university were not up to scratch and factored into the decision.
Better nutrition will be readily built into new schedules across all sports for all the Bruins, a fact that Jarmond can be proud of.
While scheduling and flights will be difficult to manage with obvious time zone differences, UCLA brass seems to think that this move will be an ultimately beneficial one for the future of their athletics programs across the board.
