I hate the Big 10…that said why not just have one league where all the big players get to go, call it the National College Football League. Because that’s really what College Football has become, an NFL farm league right? Talk about revenue…
Mixed feelings about this. Good for revenue and recruiting to the major sports. Good to ditch the Pac-12 Network. Bad for tradition and regional rivalries. Longer travel time for athletes. (Can't wait for that Thursday night game at Rutgers.). For those of you dismissing the burden on the athletes, being a D1 athlete is a huge commitment of time and energy. (Full disclosure, our daughter is on the rowing team, so we have a first hand look at our athletes' sacrifice -- they work their tails off, work through injury, and give up a lot.) The extra travel makes it harder.
I really really hate this. One one hand, I completely understand the relative necessity of making this move. It is the sad consequence of two decades of myopic and impotent "leadership" at both the Pac12 and at UCLA Athletics that left the Pac12 on the outside looking in, and it didn't appear that anyone had any plans to rebuild the Conference's stature on the national level. I just really hate that UCLA had to be the first school (discounting *$c as an actual school) to trade in so much meaningful tradition and integrity for the almighty dollar in an effort to stay relevant. It makes us look like the first rat to bail on the sinking ship and it's disgraceful.
Of course the NCAA and especially college football started colleges on this trail a long time ago. Today's announcement and the essential death of the Pac12 is its natural, and ugly, result.
This sucks. As someone who’s been a UCLA fan since watching Cade McNown lead the Bruins to a victory over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, I hate everything that this move represents for the LA schools and the future of college sports.
I mean it’s great for UCLA and secures their athletes’ and the athletic department’s for the mid term, but it never should have come to this.
Culturally this makes little sense outside of academic affiliation; geographically it makes zero sense. At least Texas and OU are somewhat to other SEC teams when they moved.
But ooh boy, we get to play Michigan and Ohio State now on a semi-annual basis for BrAnDiNg aNd PrEsTiGe aNd MiLlIoNS!!!!!!!!!
I hate Texas and OU for moving to the SEC and being the precursor to this last insane domino.
I hate this arms race that’s turning college football into a glorified semi-pro league.
I hate how 150+ years of college athletics is about to go down the drain because of pure economics.
Some of that did need to go — archaic amateurism rules and restrictions on student-athletes, for example — but this ruins the traditions and local/regional aspect of college sports. This also kills any national presence mid and low major D-I schools will get in non-football sports.
This is basically what the European Super League was supposed to be for club soccer. At least Europeans had the good sense to riot against the owners for the sake of the smaller clubs, and FIFA, cartel it may be, at least threatened players with not being able to compete for their countries in international competition so they could put pressure on the owners.
I wish our sports organizations —“amateur” or otherwise—had the same kind of integrity, especially in the face of the NCAA being so toothless at this point.
But most of all, I hate that UCLA —like gbruin said— was the next university to sell its soul, with its rich tradition in both academics and athletics.
I think I may have to take an hiatus from college sports indefinitely.
I have to give UCLA credit for joining a substantially more competitive league!! What is to be seen is where both teams will land in their divisions. Could UCLA compete in the Big10 East Division? If the Big10 puts USC in the East Division, it would make that division clearly too talent heavy with Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State already there. So most likely USC goes to the West to kind of balance things out. Where would UCLA land? Exciting times coming for sure in 2024!! :)
As a brief "Yay, me!" moment, I'll copy a paragraph from an article I wrote here on TMB last year:
"Expansion will happen. Physics and money dictate it. But if the Pac-12 sits by, it will become a smaller and less powerful player in the arms race that is college football and risk getting our existing schools poached by bigger and more powerful conferences in the future. But since circumstances allows us a chance to direct the outcome, it’s critical that the Pac-12 be the driving force that brings its selected Universities into its orbit."
I actually wrote that article a couple years earlier but it got lost amongst other issues at the time, and then the OU and Texas to the SEC rumors got hot and I updated it and published it. Sadly, if this idea occurred to a schmo like me 3 years ago, it should have occurred to professional athletic conference leaders long before that. But instead we had guys like Larry Scott and Dan Guerrero sitting around collecting checks and dust, and so today, as if Thanos just snapped his fingers, we watch the Pac12 itself turn to dust.
I hate the Big 10…that said why not just have one league where all the big players get to go, call it the National College Football League. Because that’s really what College Football has become, an NFL farm league right? Talk about revenue…
The number 1 casualty of this? We no longer get to hear Walton rave about the Conference of Champions during UCLA games.
100% hate this move. What happened to caring about tradition and academics? I hate that all everyone cares about nowadays is money and TV deals.
Rumor has it that Notre Dame and Oregon are about to follow us. Clemson, FSU, Miami to the SEC. Big 12 to swallow up most of the Pac 10.
Dimitri, since football is not NCAA, couldn’t the football team just go by itself?
Officially announced
https://uclabruins.com/news/2022/6/30/bruin-athletics-ucla-to-join-big-ten-conference-at-start-of-2024-25-season.aspx
Mixed feelings about this. Good for revenue and recruiting to the major sports. Good to ditch the Pac-12 Network. Bad for tradition and regional rivalries. Longer travel time for athletes. (Can't wait for that Thursday night game at Rutgers.). For those of you dismissing the burden on the athletes, being a D1 athlete is a huge commitment of time and energy. (Full disclosure, our daughter is on the rowing team, so we have a first hand look at our athletes' sacrifice -- they work their tails off, work through injury, and give up a lot.) The extra travel makes it harder.
Whatever comes of it, Go Bruins!
Well it’s a done deal. I guess we make the best of it.
No more SPTRs
I really really hate this. One one hand, I completely understand the relative necessity of making this move. It is the sad consequence of two decades of myopic and impotent "leadership" at both the Pac12 and at UCLA Athletics that left the Pac12 on the outside looking in, and it didn't appear that anyone had any plans to rebuild the Conference's stature on the national level. I just really hate that UCLA had to be the first school (discounting *$c as an actual school) to trade in so much meaningful tradition and integrity for the almighty dollar in an effort to stay relevant. It makes us look like the first rat to bail on the sinking ship and it's disgraceful.
Of course the NCAA and especially college football started colleges on this trail a long time ago. Today's announcement and the essential death of the Pac12 is its natural, and ugly, result.
This sucks. As someone who’s been a UCLA fan since watching Cade McNown lead the Bruins to a victory over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl, I hate everything that this move represents for the LA schools and the future of college sports.
I mean it’s great for UCLA and secures their athletes’ and the athletic department’s for the mid term, but it never should have come to this.
Culturally this makes little sense outside of academic affiliation; geographically it makes zero sense. At least Texas and OU are somewhat to other SEC teams when they moved.
But ooh boy, we get to play Michigan and Ohio State now on a semi-annual basis for BrAnDiNg aNd PrEsTiGe aNd MiLlIoNS!!!!!!!!!
I hate Texas and OU for moving to the SEC and being the precursor to this last insane domino.
I hate this arms race that’s turning college football into a glorified semi-pro league.
I hate how 150+ years of college athletics is about to go down the drain because of pure economics.
Some of that did need to go — archaic amateurism rules and restrictions on student-athletes, for example — but this ruins the traditions and local/regional aspect of college sports. This also kills any national presence mid and low major D-I schools will get in non-football sports.
This is basically what the European Super League was supposed to be for club soccer. At least Europeans had the good sense to riot against the owners for the sake of the smaller clubs, and FIFA, cartel it may be, at least threatened players with not being able to compete for their countries in international competition so they could put pressure on the owners.
I wish our sports organizations —“amateur” or otherwise—had the same kind of integrity, especially in the face of the NCAA being so toothless at this point.
But most of all, I hate that UCLA —like gbruin said— was the next university to sell its soul, with its rich tradition in both academics and athletics.
I think I may have to take an hiatus from college sports indefinitely.
I have to give UCLA credit for joining a substantially more competitive league!! What is to be seen is where both teams will land in their divisions. Could UCLA compete in the Big10 East Division? If the Big10 puts USC in the East Division, it would make that division clearly too talent heavy with Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State already there. So most likely USC goes to the West to kind of balance things out. Where would UCLA land? Exciting times coming for sure in 2024!! :)
Also, fuck ESPN, fuck Fox, and fuck the CFP.
As a brief "Yay, me!" moment, I'll copy a paragraph from an article I wrote here on TMB last year:
"Expansion will happen. Physics and money dictate it. But if the Pac-12 sits by, it will become a smaller and less powerful player in the arms race that is college football and risk getting our existing schools poached by bigger and more powerful conferences in the future. But since circumstances allows us a chance to direct the outcome, it’s critical that the Pac-12 be the driving force that brings its selected Universities into its orbit."
https://www.themightybruin.com/p/the-physics-of-college-football-expansion
I actually wrote that article a couple years earlier but it got lost amongst other issues at the time, and then the OU and Texas to the SEC rumors got hot and I updated it and published it. Sadly, if this idea occurred to a schmo like me 3 years ago, it should have occurred to professional athletic conference leaders long before that. But instead we had guys like Larry Scott and Dan Guerrero sitting around collecting checks and dust, and so today, as if Thanos just snapped his fingers, we watch the Pac12 itself turn to dust.
The Pac 12 network has been always terrible. I can never get in on Direct TV. Maybe UCLA will also be on a better TV network so we all have access.
I just hope that UCLA gets better at sports rather than worse like Nebraska. Nebraska made the switch because they get a ton more money.