In the Summer of 2022, the University of Southern California
(USC) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) made their public decision to leave the Pac-12 NCAA conference to go to the Big-10 by August 2024. 

USC and UCLA’s decision to leave the Pac-12 was met with controversy with many student-athletes and college football fans alike. But on the other hand, many are happy because this means better games yearly in the Big-10. 

Historically USC and UCLA have fielded many good teams and I don’t expect it to change, With Michigan and Ohio State’s current success will make for great games for football fans. 

Another good thing about the move is that it will make it easier to take care of the College Football Playoff (CFP) seeding. With the current power-5 format, it is difficult to narrow it down to four teams for the CFP with guaranteed one conference to not have a team participating in the CFP. So with the Pac-12 losing their two best teams USC and UCLA, you can assume that the rest of the Pac-12 schools will be trying to leave as soon as possible. 

In addition, the moves will make the recruitment of players from the California area easier for the current Big-10 schools because they can have recruits visit during games vs USC and UCLA. In addition, USC and UCLA can have recruits visits in games vs the Midwest Big-10 games. 

Whether you like the move or not, you can’t ignore the many benefits that can come from USC and UCLA joining the Big-10.