Bruce Feldman believes one historic college football program may go independent

The bloated Big Ten now spans both continental American coasts and includes an outlandish roster of 18 teams. Fans never really understood why the league expanded in the way it did, and now, there's one of those brand new West Coast schools that could be looking for a way out of the conference down the road. At least, Bruce Feldman believes there's a puncher's chance of that possibility.

He joined a show called Mason & Ireland on ESPN LA to talk some bigger picture Big Ten storylines, including some conversation around USC, who's really in an odd spot right now. Per Feldman, the Trojans had long looked at a potential move out of the Pac-12/Pac-10, perhaps toward independence, but instead ultimately made a move to the Big Ten and were joined by three other west coast schools in Oregon, Washington and UCLA.

"Since the time I moved out here, which is probably right when Pete Caroll got it rolling at USC, I feel like there’s always been some thought of, 'We should go independent, we don’t need to be in the Pac-10,'" Feldman shared. "It was like, 'Why are we getting the same cut as Oregon State? We’re driving the boat on this, right?' A lot of that stuff, I think, made some sense."

USC has always had a king's view on what their cut should be in the college football space, says Feldman, which could mean the Trojans still have an eye on branching out as an independent, a la their annual rival Notre Dame.

"Obviously, they moved out," he added. "You know, there’s a big Fox deal that they and three other schools, you know, ended up doing, but it’s USC really was leading the way on that. To think that they would end up going, 'Alright, well we’re just going to end up going independent because that’s really our only solution,' — that seems confusing to me, because we don’t know what that landscape’s going to look like going forward for the rest of the sports."

Good points by Feldman, who has a hard time understanding the desire, at this point, to go independent on the heels of the Big Ten move. But when asked point blank for a percentage chance that USC does wind up pursuing conference independence, he answered:

"I don’t know... 20%," he said. "I don’t even know if I would go that high."

Let's not get it twisted: Bruce Feldman does not appear to be for USC independence, nor does he believe it's entirely likely. However, a 20% chance, even if it's not quite that high, still reflects a feeling from Feldman that USC could very possibly attempt to make that move. Given the crazy changes of the 2020s in college athletics thus far, you certainly can't rule out such possibilities.

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