College football realignment: 6 more schools could follow USC, UCLA to the Big Ten
The next phase of college football realignment picked up with news that USC and UCLA plan to join the Big Ten in 2024, but the conference may not be done yet.
News of the two prestige, LA-based football and basketball programs leaving the Pac-12 was followed by reports that more schools could be reaching the exits, too.
Big Ten wants more?
Six more, to be precise: the Big Ten could target Oregon, Washington, Cal, Stanford, Utah, and Colorado to join up, West Coast college football insider John Canzano said.
"Big Ten isn't close to done," he said.
If all goes according to plan, those schools could make up a presumptive "Big Ten West" division and would bring the conference to 22 members. In effect, the first super-conference in college football history.
By including USC and UCLA, the Big Ten dramatically improved its already-impressive TV coverage thanks to adding the lucrative Los Angeles market.
That's in addition to the entire Midwest, the New York area (Rutgers), the Washington area (Maryland), and Philadelphia (Penn State).
There's also a geographic issue, as the Big Ten may want to add more West Coast based teams so USC and UCLA don't have to travel across the country for nearly all of their road conference games.
Any way you look at it, the Pac-12 is the big loser of the latest phase of college football realignment. The conference just lost its premier football product and its main basketball property.
And by the looks of things, it's about to lose a lot more in the future.
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