Every little thing you require to know about UCLA and USC becoming a member of the Big Ten

A Southern California indigenous and veteran of various Massive 10 winters, Myles Johnson understands the initially phrases probable uttered by former Pac-12 athletes once their new conference smacks them like a midwinter Lake Michigan breeze.

“Help! Assist!”

Johnson, the onetime Rutgers center who invested his final college basketball period at UCLA as a graduate transfer, recently retweeted a meme exhibiting a man in a burly wintertime coat standing in a subway doorway pleading for assist.

The caption: “UCLA gamers when they get off the airplane in Minnesota in December.”

Sure, it is heading to be brutally chilly. It is also going to be jarring in a different way.

Bruins guard Jaylen Clark retweeted a meme of a frightened boy staying roused from mattress, alongside a caption that examine, “USC and UCLA players waking up for their 9 a.m. Big 10 online games.”

Outside of the givens of brutal temperature and previously get started moments that await UCLA and USC upon their 2024 defection to the Significant Ten, scores of inquiries keep on being. Below are some responses much more than two yrs before the shift:

Will Chip Kelly guide the Bruins on to the area for their initial Large Ten game?

This probably hinges additional on how UCLA fares in 2023 than in 2022.

The Bruins’ 2022 plan pretty much presents them eight wins. A nonconference slate of Bowling Green, Alabama State and South Alabama presents the easiest home agenda considering the fact that a most loved film followed by chocolate milk and a bedtime story.

UCLA is likely to gain ample online games this period to maintain Kelly utilized. The concern results in being if the Bruins can sustain their achievements in 2023, when they will break in a new quarterback.

Also retain in head that Kelly’s buyout under his new 4-12 months agreement is exceedingly friendly to UCLA, so it would cost the university nothing at all to jettison him as quickly as Dec. 16, 2023.

The hope for extensive-struggling Bruins admirers is that it does not arrive to that. UCLA previous appeared in a Rose Bowl video game as a member of the Pac-10, on Jan. 1, 1999, and craves a return prior to moving to the Huge Ten. Kelly’s 18-25 start at the faculty will be forgiven if he can take the Bruins back to their household stadium on New Year’s Day.

UCLA head coach Chip Kelly congratulates UCLA managing back Kazmeir Allen immediately after he scored a touchdown towards USC very last time.

(Allen J. Schaben/VFAB)

Geographically talking, it would make sense to slot the Major Ten’s latest members into the West Division and bump Northwestern and Purdue into the East.

That transfer would have the extra profit of strengthening the weaker West reverse an East that incorporates conventional powers Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

A further choice would be to abandon the divisions altogether in favor of a rotating program with safeguarded rivalries this sort of as Michigan and Ohio Point out. USC will presumably want to continue to keep Notre Dame on its plan and UCLA may attempt to preserve its rivalry with California.

Whatever transpires, a single thing is particular: The Bruins and Trojans will however deal with every single other each period.

USC as opposed to any of the common Massive Ten powers will be an instant hoot as properly as a rankings bonanza.

UCLA-Michigan should really be packed with intrigue the upcoming time they play presented the Wolverines not too long ago backed out of a dwelling-and-dwelling sequence between the teams scheduled for 2022 and 2023.

There’s also a good deal of area for creativity specified the bicoastal nature of the 16-team meeting. It's possible UCLA-Rutgers will turn into the Fight of the Coasts, with a bronzed tidal wave likely to the winner.

Is the Massive 10 genuinely a improved basketball conference than the Pac-12?

UCLA and USC will be coming into a further Large 10 Meeting for basketball with the likes of Michigan and coach Juwan Howard, who waved off desire from the Lakers to mentor the Wolverines and two of his sons.

(Michael Conroy / Connected Press)

Of course, but like most points, it’s complex.

A Pac-12 workforce hasn’t won a nationwide championship considering that Arizona in 1997. The Big 10 has gained just a person national title considering the fact that then, Michigan Point out chopping down the nets in 2000. Maryland also won a nationwide championship in 2002, albeit as a member of the Atlantic Coastline Meeting.

The far more critical metric to contemplate is NCAA event bids. The Pac-12 generally lags powering its important-convention counterparts in this division. Remember the humiliation of 2012, when Washington gained the Pac-12’s standard-season title but wound up in the Countrywide Invitation Tournament?

Final year, the Pac-12 received just a few NCAA tournament bids to the Significant Ten’s nine. Extra bids means a lot more leeway for slipups and much less strain to finish in close proximity to the top of the meeting. It also must greatly enhance the seeding of the meeting winner.

Is there any way to stay away from all the frequent-flier miles connected with a bicoastal convention?

Probably not for football and men’s basketball.

These online games are heading to be performed in dwelling stadiums for the sake of lovers, tradition and — let us deal with it — television.

Some innovative options could be in store for the Olympic sports activities. For instance, UCLA’s softball team could fly to Chicago to play back again-to-again series versus Penn Condition and Rutgers, assuaging the will need for so numerous cross-country journeys.

“Meet me halfway” could just take on a literal that means.

What about the chilly-temperature conundrum?

A worker clears snow from an close zone line with a blower in Chicago before a Bears-Seahawks activity previous December. When this form of snow could be severe, UCLA and USC athletes in soccer and basketball will facial area plenty of obstacles touring east.

(Lindsey Wasson / Connected Push)

One particular solution would be for UCLA and USC to perform as lots of Massive 10 road football game titles as probable in advance of late October, giving rewards throughout the board.

The Bruins and Trojans would prevent playing on snow-covered fields whilst permitting lovers from frostbitten Midwestern outposts to appreciate Southern California in November. Outings to the Rose Bowl and Coliseum could be billed as vacation offers that fill seats, not to mention the athletic department coffers of the browsing educational facilities.

What form of reception need to the Bruins and Trojans count on on the highway in their final Pac-12 seasons?

Nasty, terrible, unpleasant.

Admirers inside Arizona’s McKale Centre didn’t want further incentive to shower rival UCLA with hatred. Now, to borrow a phrase from “Spinal Tap,” the vitriol will presumably go to 11 for the Bruins’ closing outings to the desert.

Arizona Point out learners could pull back the Curtain of Distraction inside of Desert Fiscal Arena to expose a Penn State Nittany Lion mauling a Trojan, or a Bruin frozen in perpetuity.

The most biting retort will appear from UCLA and USC following their remaining Pac-12 online games are played.

Goodbye, and excellent riddance.