Fans who have worried about the direction of college sports over the past decade were greeted with some truly unpleasant news Thursday: USC and UCLA, century-long members of the Pac-12, were leaving the conference to join the Big Ten.
Pac-12 schools have been working at a disadvantage compared to Big Ten and SEC schools for a long time now. With each year, the media rights deal the Pac-12 signed under former commissioner Larry Scott looked worse and worse as other conferences provided member schools tens of millions of dollars more per year.
But a couple years in the Big Ten, which is actively negotiating its next media rights deal, should erase all woes for USC and UCLA. Now the Big Ten is an even stronger position, and not just because of the addition of the Los Angeles market. Even beyond the substantial media rights payouts, USC and UCLA stand to benefit from a branding perspective, too.