USC, UCLA Planning To Join Big Ten And Leave Pac-12 By 2024

College football could see some major movement with big news coming Thursday and with it possibly occurring within the next few years.

The Big Ten could expand out west as early as 2024 with USC and UCLA reportedly planning to join the conference.

This comes just about a year after Texas and Oklahoma were invited to become a part of the SEC and leave the Big 12. This move is expected to occur during the summer of 2025, so it’s quite possible USC and UCLA could join the Big Ten before Texas and Oklahoma make their shifts.

The incentive behind the move for the Trojans and Bruins is the obvious reputation and monetary increase from heading to the Big Ten.

Jon Wilner, college sports reporter for The Mercury News, was the first to make the announcement via Twitter. He noted the move “has not been finalized at the highest levels of power.” This is extremely important to know at this point.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel took to Twitter about an hour later than Wilner to announce the deal is “essentially done.” He stated a press conference is expected to happen within the next day or so.

If USC and UCLA do join the Big Ten, it would be the first conference expansion since 2014, when Maryland and Rutgers joined before the start of the season. Maryland and Rutgers also are located on the east coast, so USC and UCLA could be the first west coast teams in the Big Ten.

Although being impactful for the Big Ten, one question remains for the Pac-12: What happens next? Some suspect the conference might not recover from this even if they try to make moves ahead of USC and UCLA’s departure.

All that’s left to do is wait and see the future of both the Pac-12 and the Big Ten with the reported upcoming changes. It’s just a matter of time.