Money Talks: Incentives for conference realignment
When I first heard the news about USC moving to the Big Ten, I was initially conflicted. On one hand, I understood that this move allows USC to play in more primetime, competitive games while also gaining more money for the school through media rights deals. However, at the same time, I realized that USC would not be playing any West Coast schools regularly aside from UCLA.
Although I am graduating this year and this move will not take place until 2024, it worries me that future Trojans that they won’t get to witness other fierce rivalries we have had with schools such as Stanford University and UC Berkeley. The spark of late-night Pac 12 and West Coast football will slowly go away now with USC’s departure.
This is not exclusive to USC. Last year, University of Texas and University of Oklahoma announced that they will be moving to the NCAA Southeastern Conference in 2025. With this change, they will lose competitors such as Oklahoma State University, Baylor University, Texas Tech University and more with whom they had long relationships for decades.
Larger media rights deals have been the primary cause for these decisions. In August, the Big Ten announced a deal with various platforms worth over seven billion dollars for seven years. This nets around $60 million to $75 million per year for each of its 16 schools after USC and UCLA join. By getting deals from FOX, CBS and NBC, the Big Ten is ensuring that all their members are set financially despite the challenges that might arise from all the travel and logistics now with a greater geographical presence.
Specifically, in the deal, the three networks are paying different amounts based on what time slots they can show. For instance, CBS and NBC are paying nearly $350 million each for games. In return, CBS will broadcast the 3:30 pm ET game while NBC gets the primetime evening Big Ten matchup. Furthermore, CBS will host the 2024 and 2028 Big Ten Championship games and NBC will have the 2026 championship.
As you can see, these deals are somewhat convoluted, but they maximize the profits that the conference will receive.
In all this discussion about money, there have been serious concerns from the media and public about all the changes that come with realignment.
“My god, if this actually happens it means my chances of getting a bar in Los Angeles to put the TV on Big Ten Network will go from 0% to 0.1%,” sports blogger Mark Titus tweeted about the USC/UCLA move.
“This of course impacts Bill Walton in ways I cannot even imagine. Big Ten, conference of champions?” sports commentator Kevin Kugler said of the realignment.
Finally, sports podcaster Ryen Russillo simply said, “All of this sucks.”
I do want to make the point though that all of these comments are not coming from current students at USC/UCLA or Big Ten schools.
From my interactions with most USC/UCLA students, they have been ambivalent or indifferent about the move. However, what is lacking is perspectives from current Big Ten students, so I went ahead and found out.
I talked with Ben Caterine, a senior at Northwestern University who is involved with Northwestern’s Sports Analytics Group, about how he felt regarding these recent changes.
“We have a nice private school rivalry with USC hopefully, but I feel like as far as the whole cultural thing, it is definitely going to feel really weird having two random schools out in L.A.,” Caterine said. “It would kind of make more sense if the Big Ten just kind of merged with another conference… and there would be a sort of a Midwest portion and a West Coast portion.”
The Big Ten and Pac-12 have a storied rivalry played out each year through the Rose Bowl, but there are few strong rivalries between teams from each conference.
“You have the Big Ten and Pac-12 playing in the Rose Bowl, so some of these teams have faced each other, but I guess there are not a lot of existing traditional rivalries there,” Caterine said. “It seems like over time, some could maybe sort of form. Especially like basketball, there could be some good opportunities too, like you have UCLA and Indiana [University], [which] would be like two storied basketball programs.”
Even though there is a prospect of former rivals such as Stanford joining the Big Ten as well, no official announcements have been made. So, for right now, it unfortunately appears as if the two L.A. schools will need to form new rivalries and cultures in their new conference to get students and fans excited.
Pratik Thakur is a senior writing about business in the world of college sports. His column “Money Talks” runs every other Wednesday (except for this week).