Big changes are afoot in college sports. The rumored implosion of the Atlantic Coast Conference (“ACC”) league, with many, if not all, of the schools departing for the Big Ten/Big XII of the Southeast Conference (“SEC”), brings attention to the fact that the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (“USC) will be leaving the PAC 12 in 2024. The decision by the Golden State institutions to pull up stakes and figuratively move east and join the Big Ten has knocked their former conference for a loop, with other members, such as Colorado and Utah, possibly leaving too.

Finding replacements for UCLA and USC is futile because each is steeped in athletic glory. USC, a private school, is a perennial football power, while its intracity rival, UCLA, has been a basketball juggernaut since the 1960s. By joining the Big Ten, originally formed with schools in the Great Lakes region, the California schools have stretched the league from coast to coast, over four time zones and thousands of miles.

Image by Will O’Toole at Otoons Cartoons.

The miles they’ll be traveling may have a bigger impact on their sports programs than anyone realizes. First, it will affect the players. San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher, the runner-up in this year’s basketball tournament, intimated that the extended travel would take its toll on teams, with the wear of tear of cross-country travel affecting all school teams, including football squads.

“Even though [our flight] was a charter, I thought, my goodness, those guys have to do this every other week to play a basketball game? It would be exhausting,” he said. “It’s going to be a real challenge to be at their best with that kind of travel. I’m wishing them all the best, but that’s more travel than I would ever wish on anybody.”

Consider the 2023 schedule for UCLA and USC. The total of air miles accumulated by the eight teams visiting Los Angeles or the Bruins and Trojans hitting the road is 32,700.

When UCLA and USC become a part of this Leviathan of the Big Ten in 2024, airline miles will go sky-high. Just replacing the PAC 12 contests for a schedule of Big 10 schools nearest to the LA campuses, with each playing eight games, totals 48,414 miles or a 48.01% increase in travel miles over three time zones. Now imagine and add in the miles logged by their baseball, basketball, and volleyball teams and the other 17 sports.

Second, not only will the travel affect the players, but the whole thing is also highly hypocritical, considering that California arguably leads the nation in all things “green,” with countless environmental laws, regulations, and taxes, not to mention social pressure. California has stifled its economy and muffled innovation and, for most, has made living an ordinary simple life extraordinarily complicated.

Despite California’s green reputation, California politicians and bureaucrats have been silent about the college sports shakeup. This may be because UCLA and USC will be part of a multi-billion-dollar television contract. Oodles of money are likely to be a windfall for the state and funnel into California government coffers in some way, shape, and form.

The Big Ten has completed a new seven-year media rights agreement with Fox, CBS and NBC that is set to bring in more than $7 billion to one of the nation’s most powerful athletic conferences…. The deal will begin July 1, 2023, and run through the end of the 2029-30 athletic year.

It looks as if, in the end, the real “green” won out.

APPENDIX

Average airmiles for USC’s Trojan football team and its opponents to the Big Ten based on the 2023 schedule:

Rutgers 2432 | Northwestern 1744

Maryland 2324 | Illinois 1706

Penn St 2257 | Wisconsin 1687

Ohio St 1995 | Iowa 1551

Michigan 1978 | Minnesota 1535

Michigan State 1920 | Nebraska 1279

Indiana 1814 | UCLA 0

Purdue 1790 | USC 0