As perhaps the biggest “Survivor” fan out there, I have many favorite quotes. One in particular stands out to me as I prepare to write about USC football for the fourth time in this column and, seemingly, 100th overall. 

“He’s no Mike Tyson. He’s Brett,” notorious “Survivor” villain Russell Hantz said, referring to a fellow contestant on the show’s 19th season.

The irony is that Brett Clouser — the player referenced — was the best player on that season by a wide margin, and he would’ve given Russell a metaphorical punch out had he survived one more round and made it to the end of the game. Hantz played with fire, as he is known to do, but had Clouser been a bit more like Mike Tyson physically, Hantz may have been knocked out like Alan (Zach Galifianakis) from “The Hangover” (2009).

While USC football, in particular, isn’t the Mike Tyson-esque dominating force it used to be in the college football sphere, a certain 18-team conference might be playing with a blue-blooded fire it can’t fight. Actually, make that two.

Yahoo Sports reported Sunday that the Big Ten was gearing up for a vote on a $2.4 billion deal with University of California Investments, despite lacking the support of USC or Michigan. The deal is reportedly for 10% of Big Ten Enterprises, a proposed holding company that would control the conference’s media rights and sponsorship deals.

On top of creating Big Ten Enterprises and sending an average of roughly $135 million directly to each Big Ten school — after accounting for the Big Ten office receiving a slice — Yahoo Sports also reported that the deal would extend the binding grant of rights through 2046, effectively locking USC into the conference for at least another 21 years.

The teams that benefit the most are obvious: the Scarlet Knights, Terrapins and Boilermakers of the world — aka the programs that are hardly competing in the conference right now, let alone against some of the top teams in the country down southeast. And more competitive opponents means a better resume, right?

To stick with our “Survivor” metaphor from earlier, one of my favorite kinds of votes in the show is when a group of seemingly weak individuals gang up on a group that had a lot going for it beforehand — like the merge episode of the ongoing 49th season. One of the beauties of the game design is that every vote counts the exact same, no matter what.

This isn’t “Survivor,” though. USC’s brand is not comparable to Purdue’s, and I don’t think anyone’s arguing with that. So, why should their vote count the same?

That’s where another facet of the deal comes in, which gives three of the Big Ten’s marquee schools not named USC a larger share of conference revenue. The schools in question: Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State — all programs that have significantly outpaced the Trojans in football for the better part of recent memory.

So, in an effort to help low-mid-tier Big Ten football programs compete with SEC teams, the conference also wants to elevate its own stalwarts even when, at the very least, USC is in the conversation with those schools for the biggest market and influence? And Michigan itself is the other holdout!

The proposed consequences should they vote no: to lose some of the deal’s money and “risk their future within the conference beyond 2036,” when the current grant of rights ends, according to Yahoo Sports’ report. 

Devious.

It’s no surprise that a person with knowledge of the USC Board of Trustees’ opinion told Yahoo Sports bluntly that “they aren’t on board.”

However, I don’t know that the decision is as black and white as some online have made it seem.

Is it disrespectful to USC? Yes. Is it insanity that the Trojans and Wolverines could get kicked out of the conference over this? Yes. As if the deal with the investors looks as good without two of the biggest-market college programs.

But, is USC still recovering from a nine-digit deficit, building one of the most expensive football facilities in the nation and undergoing some of the most widespread layoffs it has seen in decades? Also yes.

As the iconic USC Trojans, I don’t think the University has any necessity to cave to the demands of the conference it has only been in for two years, but stability is never a bad thing. If a lot of the controversial changes to USC’s operations over the past year were made to prevent uncertainty caused by the Trump administration or financial shocks, wouldn’t another 20 years mapped out help, especially if the buyout option stays on the table?

On the contrary, a common theory spreading around the insanity that is X is that USC and even Michigan could go independent for football — mirroring Notre Dame’s relationship with the ACC, but presumably with the Big Ten — to maintain prominence and College Football Playoff contention, among other reasons. 

Now, I understand betting on yourself, I just sent in a column intro centered around “Survivor,” Mike Tyson and “The Hangover,” but that prospect is far beyond that concept. It’s almost blasphemous. 

USC-UCLA, Ohio State-Michigan, USC-Oregon, Michigan-Michigan State could all be up in the air, and I can go on. Conferences are as critical for stability, recognition and resume-building as the blue-blooded brands are in the inverse. It’s symbiotic.

Notre Dame is a unicorn, not an aspiration. And, by the way, look at the schedules it has to take on year-to-year to compete with a standard SEC team for respect.

In the hypothetical, USC and Michigan could both likely survive alone, but one hurdle, bad season or scandal and they are running back to the Big Ten begging for morsels. They have all the leverage right now; they just have to hold out a bit longer.

Though, a Big Ten spokesperson wrote in a statement to Yahoo Sports last week that no vote was scheduled and that the conference would give each team “adequate time” to consider the offer. So, maybe this urgency is all a farce and this column was for naught, but I don’t think that’s likely.

Perhaps I’ll see you on the flip side, moaning about how wrong — or right! — I was about this deal … or the “Survivor: 49” results should Savannah Louie not win. 

Sean Campbell is a sophomore writing about all facets of USC sports in a voice- and reference-heavy style in his column, “A Wannabe Sports Writer,” which runs every other Friday. He is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.