Athletic Director Gene Smith speaks to the media during an availability. Credit: Jacob Benge | Sports Editor
Pack a suitcase and read up on the West — the Universities of California, Los Angeles and Southern California are joining the Big Ten Conference.
Located more than 2,200 miles from Ohio State’s campus in Columbus, UCLA and USC’s deep, decorated histories will jump from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten beginning Aug. 2, 2024, the programs and Big Ten announced Friday. According to a release, the move centered on four primary principles: academics and culture; student-athlete welfare, competition and logistics; commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in sports and financial sustainability.
Ohio State athletics director Gene Smith said UCLA and USC formally submitted applications to join the Big Ten June 29, and the conference’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to allow their admission Friday. Smith said a number of schools had shown interest in expansion, some “just queries,” but current Buckeye coaches are excited about the additions of the Bruins and Trojans’ programs.
“I did talk to Ryan [Day], and he’s very supportive of this. He’s excited about it,” Smith said. “Chris Holtmann, he’s excited about it, so they see the vision here. They understand it. They’re worried about what’s in front of them. ’24 is a long ways away for them, but the prospect of those two schools in our league, they’re really excited about it.”
University President Kristina M. Johnson said she’d be surprised if UCLA and USC represent the final expansion moves made nationally. Smith said college athletics is in an “unbelievable, crazy time,” and he won’t speculate on whether the Big Ten — or other conferences — will continue expanding.
Leagues like the Southeastern Conference have actively explored expansion in recent years, notably accepting additions from Oklahoma and Texas beginning in 2025. Smith said the Big Ten didn’t expand in response to the SEC or other conferences.
Expansion aside, Smith said adding UCLA and USC is “too good to pass up.”
“It had nothing to do with Texas and Oklahoma or us setting up mega-conferences for the future — it was about what did the Big Ten need?” Smith said. “Our marketing and media rights opportunities, along with the great relationship that we have with two institutions that culturally fit us, was just too good to pass up, so it was more about those things than it was about trying to compare to the SEC.”
Smith said UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten “aligns us more with the SEC” and sets up the conference to fit in the direction the College Football Playoff goes whether it expands from four qualifying playoff teams in the future.
UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten will impact more than just football, though.
All varsity sports from the two programs will compete in the Big Ten, according to a release. The Alliance between the Atlantic Coastal Conference, Big Ten and Pac-12 already paved the way for scheduling agreements between member programs, and Smith said the pact will stick around, so any long-distance logistical roadmaps will be figured out.
“For this particular situation, USC and UCLA had to really think about, ‘If it was just football coming into the Big Ten, where would their Olympic sports play?’ Probably wouldn’t be allowed to continue to play in the Pac-12, so at the end of the day, this made the most sense for them,” Smith said. “They are competitive, so I don’t see this getting in the way, frankly, and some of them, they’ll be studying on that long plane and taking advantage of that time.”
Smith said Johnson, who played field hockey at Stanford, was significantly involved in the process and “helped us move the ball over the goal line” in the Big Ten’s recent expansion.
Johnson said Ohio State prides itself on its research expenditures being near the top of the line among colleges and universities. She said UCLA and USC’s memberships as one of 65 North American universities part of the Association of American Universities, which bases its values on education, research and innovation, alongside Ohio State helped make expansion appealing and the right fit.
“Something that isn’t often talked about at Ohio State and about Ohio State is that we are actually one of the largest research institutions in the country,” Johnson said. “UCLA and USC share that. They share that mission as well, and so I think this is going to bring us closer together and a lot of synergies with the Big Ten and UCLA and USC, so I’m excited about the opportunity.”
Both UCLA and USC were part of their previous conference’s evolution to the Pac-12 that it is today for more than 90 years. Both account for numerous Rose Bowl victories and conference titles, bringing more than 1,000 student-athletes when the two programs officially join the Big Ten.
But UCLA and USC are still more than two years away from nudging between the likes of Ohio State and Michigan and venturing from the West to the East coast regularly. Their expansion is the latest ripple in college athletics, and one Ohio State eagerly hopes will be advantageous.
“There definitely will be a significant upside. It’s just hard to say what that will be, but it’s major,” Smith said. “Really excited about that possibility, and we just have to wait and see what it comes out to be in the end.”
