The gauntlet of women’s basketball in the Pac-12 is like no other.

Six Pac-12 teams were ranked in Monday’s Associated Press Top 25 Poll, more than any other conference. Three of those teams are ranked in the top 10. USC women’s basketball (16-4, 6-4 Pac-12) has had to play four of the ranked teams since Jan. 14 — three of those matchups coming on the road — as part of a grueling seven-game schedule where the Trojans picked up their second and third top-10 wins of the season.

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Luckily for USC, the move to the Big Ten will provide an easier schedule, as only three Big Ten schools were ranked in that same AP Poll. Throw UCLA (17-4, 6-4) in there and it’s still a much easier schedule than the Trojans currently have.

While a lighter schedule is not always a good thing — with fewer marquee wins, a team is less likely to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament — USC will certainly have enough opportunities to earn those resume wins. Even though the conference has limited ranked teams, the Big Ten still has 10 teams in the top 55 of the NET rankings.

The Pac-12, in all of its sports, often turns into the conference of cannibalism, as it eats itself alive when a team has a chance at national contention. USC football was on the wrong end of that last year, when it lost the Pac-12 Football Championship Game to Utah, eliminating the Trojans from the College Football Playoff.

It’s the same situation for women’s basketball this season, as every Pac-12 team has at least two conference losses already this season. The best teams are beating each other up, but no team can consistently do that. Since Dec. 30, USC has beaten Stanford, Stanford has beaten UCLA, UCLA has beaten Oregon State, Oregon State has beaten Colorado, Colorado has beaten Utah and Utah beat USC to complete the cycle.

The self-destruction that consistently plagues the Pac-12 is much less common in the Big Ten. Ohio State (19-3, 10-1 Big Ten) — a team USC beat earlier this season — only has a single conference loss compared to the Trojans’ four. It doesn’t matter how good you are; if your conference mates are just as good or better, you’ll be overshadowed in a top-heavy conference.

This is also a perfect union because the Big Ten will certainly benefit from USC’s brand. The conference is likely losing Iowa senior guard Caitlin Clark — a player who averages 32.4 points per game and has a brand so big, she earned her own page at the Daily Iowan — to the WNBA next season. 

Freshman guard JuJu Watkins, though, comes with the Trojans to the Big Ten and her brand might grow to surpass Clark’s by the time her college career is done. Watkins, in only her first year in college, averages 27.3 points per game and her most recent jaw-dropping, “how did she do it” feat was a 51-point performance on the road against then-No. 4 Stanford.

Now the question is, “Will Watkins be able to put up similarly mind-boggling numbers in a new conference?” Watkins only has two 30-point games in conference play this season, both against top-10 teams UCLA and Stanford.

She seems to bring her A-game against the best teams in the Pac-12, so will that trend continue in a conference with fewer high-level teams? 

The early signs indicate the answer to that question is yes. The Trojans have squared off against two Big Ten teams so far this season, both ending in USC wins. Watkins has scored 30 or more points in both of those Big Ten games, one of the games coming in her collegiate debut against the highly ranked Ohio State.

It’s a slightly easier conference, USC has the best freshman in the country AND this team could be even better next year. Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb and the Trojans signed three of ESPN’s 31 five-star recruits, all of whom will join the team next season.

No matter how this season ends — whether the Pac-12 will continue its self-destructive habits or not — USC is set up for success in the Big Ten for years to come.

Thomas Johnson is a junior writing about USC’s move to a new conference and all of the implications surrounding the transition in his column, “Big Ten Bites,” which runs every other Monday. He is also an assistant sports editor at the Daily Trojan.