USC, UCLA ‘can carry some weight’ in Big Ten, Ohio State AD says

The two greatest faculty sports activities manufacturers on the West Coast — USC and UCLA — are formally leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024, the latest bombshell move to shake up the faculty soccer panorama.

Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith did not draw back from the chance to share specifics on how he thought the transfer would assist the Buckeyes, saying that Ohio State may use some assist “carrying” the convention. 

“For Ohio State, it frankly offers two different colleges that may carry some weight,” Smith said. “At the tip of the day, Ohio State has been this system for the Big Ten over time that has been on the high of the pyramid and has carried a big quantity of weight and worth in the Big Ten.

“Now, we’ve two others who can contribute to that weight. I’m actually enthusiastic about that. … That’s no disparagement to any faculty. It’s simply actuality.”

Ohio State is the one program in the Big Ten to win a College Football Playoff sport, together with the primary CFP nationwide championship sport in 2014. Ohio State is 93–11 since then, whereas USC is 70–41 and UCLA is 46–48 throughout that very same time interval — although neither California-based program has made a CFP look.

What does the Big Ten enlargement mean for the schools, the conferences and the College Football Playoff? Some suppose faculty soccer is headed toward a pro model with two mega-conferences.

Regardless, it’s a main blow for the Pac-12 Conference, which hasn’t despatched a workforce to the College Football Playoff for the reason that 2016 Washington Huskies and has battled for relevancy in a Power Five panorama dominated by the SEC and Big Ten. The transfer additionally comes nearly a yr after Big 12 powers Texas and Oklahoma formally accepted invites to affix the SEC in 2025.