By RJ Younger
FOX Sports activities Faculty Soccer Author
The Massive Ten simply bought quite a bit larger. On Thursday, a number of shops reported USC and UCLA had initiated contact with the Massive Ten about potential membership within the 14-school convention.
Later within the day, Massive Ten presidents and chancellors unanimously voted to permit the 2 largest brand-name faculties on the West Coast into the convention, rising its membership to 16 — a not insignificant quantity.
Each faculties then put out official statements confirming the transfer.
The SEC may even enhance its membership to 16 by 2025 after voting final 12 months to permit Oklahoma and Texas to hitch.
What does all this imply for the colleges, the conferences and the Faculty Soccer Playoff?
Let's break it down.
USC, UCLA to hitch Massive Ten
FOX Sports activities' RJ Younger reacts to the information that USC and UCLA will probably be leaving the Pac-12 for the Massive Ten in 2024.
You'll be able to watch the "The No. 1 Ranked Present with RJ Younger" on YouTube or subscribe on podcast platforms, together with Apple Podcasts.
What does it imply for USC and UCLA?
That is an impressive transfer for the Trojans and the Bruins, two packages which have lengthy carried the banner for the Pac-12.
Whether or not it is Pete Carroll’s Trojans throughout the mid-2000s or John Picket’s dynastic Bruins, the Los Angeles faculties have been pillars on the West Coast for many years.
Now, with Lincoln Riley at USC and Chip Kelly at UCLA, the standard of video games in opposition to blue-blooded, big-brand opponents that may span from Faculty Park, Maryland, and New Brunswick, New Jersey, to South Central L.A.
What's extra, in each lounge within the continental U.S., Riley and Kelly will be capable to not simply recruit but in addition promote the possibility for a household to not should journey to this point, in the event that they reside within the southeast or on the East Coast, to attend video games.
This additionally means the Trojans and Bruins be a part of what I imagine is clearly the second-best convention among the many Energy 5, however that received’t final lengthy. As a result of …
What does it imply for the Massive Ten?
The Massive Ten has killed the concept of the Energy 5. There are solely two conferences now. All hail the SEC and the B1G.
It’s not simply that the SEC added Oklahoma and Texas or that the Massive Ten added USC and UCLA. It’s additionally affordable to imagine these two conferences might be liable for as many as 20 of the Related Press and/or CFP choice committee’s High 25.
Mixed, the 2 conferences will depend 32 groups and practically 25% of all FBS packages by 2025, when OU and Texas are slated to enter the SEC. That’s an unlimited quantity.
Belief that the Pac-12, Massive 12 and ACC have executed that math, too. Their packages may look to go away their respective conferences for the greener pastures of the SEC or Massive Ten.
But when there’s one faculty specifically that could be seeking to additionally make a leap to the Massive Ten, it is Notre Dame. It’s not simply that the Irish exist within the B1G footprint; it is also that they’d be becoming a member of rival USC and that there has by no means been a greater time to be a member of the predominant convention within the Midwest.
Whereas ND has staked its legacy on being unbiased and has constructed soccer schedules which can be extra like barnstorming excursions, the Massive Ten would give the Irish the possibility to make annual journeys to the West Coast, play Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin each different 12 months and nonetheless have room to schedule Alabama — or Alabama State — in order that they hit every of their alumni markets.
What does it imply for the Pac-12?
Nothing good.
The heights Oregon reached in beating Ohio State at Columbus had been dashed when the Geese took a loss to Stanford on the highway and Utah doubled them up twice in three weeks. The Utes (10-4), who by no means figured into the CFP image in 2021, adopted a Pac-12 championship victory with a (nonetheless thrilling) Rose Bowl loss to the very Ohio State crew Oregon had overwhelmed on the highway.
Nevertheless, with USC coming off a 4-8 season, the rent of Lincoln Riley by athletic director Mike Bohn acted as a brilliant mild following an in any other case so-so Pac-12 season. Riley introduced with him most of the assistants who helped him and Oklahoma attain three CFP semifinals in 5 years, plus a Cotton Bowl victory.
Riley additionally lured celebrity gamers similar to quarterback Caleb Williams and huge receiver Jordan Addison to USC. However the Pac-12 won't ever get the chance to bask within the glow of a revitalized USC — or UCLA, for that matter — even when the Trojans and Bruins grow to be the 2 greatest groups within the first season the Pac-12 performs with out divisions.
What does it imply for the CFP?
Growth, enlargement, enlargement.
By 2025, a four-team playoff might imply two groups from the Massive Ten and two groups from the SEC or — worse but — three groups from a kind of conferences. Whereas faculty soccer has by no means been truthful and parity among the many FBS faculties is a dream solely few have wished, most will admit {that a} focus of expertise and no underdogs to root for could be dangerous for the expansion of the game.
Irrespective of how a lot you imagine Cincinnati deserved a CFP invitation, this system's being the primary Group of 5 crew to obtain one mattered for gamers, households and followers of non-powerhouses who need to imagine their crew can come across a once-in-a-lifetime season and earn an opportunity to play for the nationwide title.
I imagine even the SEC and Massive Ten members perceive the worth of a playoff event, even when we'd find yourself with Georgia and Alabama enjoying for the nationwide title once more.
RJ Younger is a nationwide faculty soccer author and analyst for FOX Sports activities and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Observe him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He isn't on a StepMill.
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