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Washington vs. UCLA – Game Recap – September 30, 2022

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PASADENA, Calif. — — Dorian Thompson-Robinson had read and heard the comments about UCLA’s unbeaten start not meaning much due to the quality of opponents it played.

On Friday night, Thompson-Robinson and the Bruins made sure to make a statement with their first victory over a top-15 team since 2014.

Thompson-Robinson passed for 315 yards and three touchdowns in UCLA’s 40-32 victory over No. 15 Washington in a matchup of unbeaten Pac-12 teams at the Rose Bowl.

“People were saying all week that we’re the worst 4-0 team out there and writing us off. I think my boys came here with a chip on their shoulder,” said Thompson-Robinson, who had the sixth 300-yard passing game of his career. “I think I told y’all on Monday, see if Washington can run with us, not the other way around.”

The fifth-year senior also ran 2 yards for a score in the third quarter, when he sidestepped defenders Bralen Trice and Jayvion Green, causing them to fall on one another in a heap near the goal line in making it 33-10.

Thompson-Robinson supplied the highlight plays, but plenty of other Bruins contributed to give them their first 5-0 start since 2013.

Zach Charbonnet rushed for 124 yards and a score, Jake Bobo had six receptions for 142 yards and a pair of TDs while the Bruins recorded their first safety in four years and forced a pair of turnovers.

“Our defense did a great job in the first half. For them to stake us that lead when we needed every inch of it,” coach Chip Kelly said. “Dorian was clutch. We have total confidence in everything that he does.”

The Bruins have also won eight straight dating to last season — their longest unbeaten streak since 2005. They have scored at least 40 points in six of those victories.

Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. came into the game leading the nation in passing yards but struggled in the first half as UCLA (2-0 Pac-12) scored on four straight drives and jumped out to a 26-10 halftime lead.

“We dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first half,” coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Our guys now realize is that we’re a team that people are gonna get up to play. Not that we went into the game thinking otherwise, but we got to emotionally and physically be ready to play.”

Penix finished 33 of 48 for 345 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. The junior passed for a pair of touchdowns and 2-point conversions in the fourth quarter as the Huskies got within eight, but UCLA ran out the final three minutes.

Rome Odunze had eight receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

“Just wasn’t executing. We got to do better,” Penix said. “Me myself personally, I got to take care of the ball better. And that’s really all it was, just poor execution.”

Washington (4-1, 1-1) appeared to be rolling early after it took the opening kickoff and scored 10 plays later when Odunze beat safety Devin Kirkwood in single coverage and hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-6.

The Bruins drove to the 3 on its opening drive, but turned it over on downs after three straight incomplete passes. Two plays later, the defense came up with its first big play when Penix botched a pitch and linebacker Laiatu Latu tackled Wayne Taulapapa in the end zone.

Latu, who also had three tackles and a sack, began his career at Washington before transferring this year. It was UCLA’s first safety since the 2018 season finale against Stanford.

After the free kick, the Bruins went 93 yards in 11 plays, which culminated in Charbonnet scoring from a yard to give them a 9-7 lead. That marked the first time that Washington had trailed in a game this season.

The Huskies regained the lead on Peyton Henry’s 50-yard field goal before the Bruins scored 24 straight points. Bobo caught a 12-yard strike midway through the second quarter to give UCLA the lead for good. One play after Stephan Blaylock picked off Penix and returned it to the UW 15, Thompson-Robinson found Kam Brown alone in the end zone to extend the lead to 23-10.

THE TAKEAWAY

Washington: The Huskies were ranked near the bottom of the conference in pass defense as their secondary had plenty of problems trying to contain Thompson-Robinson and Bobo.

UCLA: The Bruins had lost 11 straight games against top- 15 foes, including two to the Huskies, before Friday night’s win. Their last win was in the Alamo Bowl against No. 11 Kansas State to wrap up the 2014 season. UCLA’s last victory against a top-15 Pac-12 team was also in 2014 against No. 14 Arizona.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

UCLA had not received many votes due to playing the softest nonconference schedule of a Power Five team, but the win over the Huskies should give them plenty of momentum to jump into the rankings. A late fourth-quarter rally should keep Washington in the poll.

UP NEXT

Washington: At Arizona State next Saturday.

UCLA: Hosts No. 12 Utah next Saturday.

——

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Sports

Washington vs. UCLA – Game Recap – September 30, 2022

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PASADENA, Calif. — — Dorian Thompson-Robinson had read and heard the comments about UCLA’s unbeaten start not meaning much due to the quality of opponents it played.

On Friday night, Thompson-Robinson and the Bruins made sure to make a statement with their first victory over a top-15 team since 2014.

Thompson-Robinson passed for 315 yards and three touchdowns in UCLA’s 40-32 victory over No. 15 Washington in a matchup of unbeaten Pac-12 teams at the Rose Bowl.

“People were saying all week that we’re the worst 4-0 team out there and writing us off. I think my boys came here with a chip on their shoulder,” said Thompson-Robinson, who had the sixth 300-yard passing game of his career. “I think I told y’all on Monday, see if Washington can run with us, not the other way around.”

The fifth-year senior also ran 2 yards for a score in the third quarter, when he sidestepped defenders Bralen Trice and Jayvion Green, causing them to fall on one another in a heap near the goal line in making it 33-10.

Thompson-Robinson supplied the highlight plays, but plenty of other Bruins contributed to give them their first 5-0 start since 2013.

Zach Charbonnet rushed for 124 yards and a score, Jake Bobo had six receptions for 142 yards and a pair of TDs while the Bruins recorded their first safety in four years and forced a pair of turnovers.

“Our defense did a great job in the first half. For them to stake us that lead when we needed every inch of it,” coach Chip Kelly said. “Dorian was clutch. We have total confidence in everything that he does.”

The Bruins have also won eight straight dating to last season — their longest unbeaten streak since 2005. They have scored at least 40 points in six of those victories.

Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. came into the game leading the nation in passing yards but struggled in the first half as UCLA (2-0 Pac-12) scored on four straight drives and jumped out to a 26-10 halftime lead.

“We dug ourselves too big of a hole in the first half,” coach Kalen DeBoer said. “Our guys now realize is that we’re a team that people are gonna get up to play. Not that we went into the game thinking otherwise, but we got to emotionally and physically be ready to play.”

Penix finished 33 of 48 for 345 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. The junior passed for a pair of touchdowns and 2-point conversions in the fourth quarter as the Huskies got within eight, but UCLA ran out the final three minutes.

Rome Odunze had eight receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns.

“Just wasn’t executing. We got to do better,” Penix said. “Me myself personally, I got to take care of the ball better. And that’s really all it was, just poor execution.”

Washington (4-1, 1-1) appeared to be rolling early after it took the opening kickoff and scored 10 plays later when Odunze beat safety Devin Kirkwood in single coverage and hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-6.

The Bruins drove to the 3 on its opening drive, but turned it over on downs after three straight incomplete passes. Two plays later, the defense came up with its first big play when Penix botched a pitch and linebacker Laiatu Latu tackled Wayne Taulapapa in the end zone.

Latu, who also had three tackles and a sack, began his career at Washington before transferring this year. It was UCLA’s first safety since the 2018 season finale against Stanford.

After the free kick, the Bruins went 93 yards in 11 plays, which culminated in Charbonnet scoring from a yard to give them a 9-7 lead. That marked the first time that Washington had trailed in a game this season.

The Huskies regained the lead on Peyton Henry’s 50-yard field goal before the Bruins scored 24 straight points. Bobo caught a 12-yard strike midway through the second quarter to give UCLA the lead for good. One play after Stephan Blaylock picked off Penix and returned it to the UW 15, Thompson-Robinson found Kam Brown alone in the end zone to extend the lead to 23-10.

THE TAKEAWAY

Washington: The Huskies were ranked near the bottom of the conference in pass defense as their secondary had plenty of problems trying to contain Thompson-Robinson and Bobo.

UCLA: The Bruins had lost 11 straight games against top- 15 foes, including two to the Huskies, before Friday night’s win. Their last win was in the Alamo Bowl against No. 11 Kansas State to wrap up the 2014 season. UCLA’s last victory against a top-15 Pac-12 team was also in 2014 against No. 14 Arizona.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

UCLA had not received many votes due to playing the softest nonconference schedule of a Power Five team, but the win over the Huskies should give them plenty of momentum to jump into the rankings. A late fourth-quarter rally should keep Washington in the poll.

UP NEXT

Washington: At Arizona State next Saturday.

UCLA: Hosts No. 12 Utah next Saturday.

——

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Sports

In letter, Pac-12’s George Kliavkoff cites ‘significant’ financial, mental health concerns on UCLA move to Big Ten

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In a letter provided to the University of California Board of Regents ahead of a closed-door session Thursday to discuss UCLA’s proposed move to the Big Ten conference, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff detailed “significant concerns” he had with the move, including student-athlete mental health, increased travel and operational costs, and negative impacts on both Cal’s revenue and the UC system’s climate goals.

Klivakoff’s letter was provided in response to a request from the regents for the conference’s perspective on UCLA’s move, according to a source.

“Despite all the explanations made after the fact, UCLA’s decision to join the Big Ten was clearly financially motivated after the UCLA athletic department managed to accumulate more than $100 million in debt over the past three fiscal years,” Kliavkoff wrote.

From there, he made the case the increased revenue UCLA will receive would be completely offset by the increased costs coming from increased travel, the need for competitive salaries within the Big Ten and game guarantee expenses.

“UCLA currently spends approximately 8.1 million per year on travel for its teams to compete in the Pac-12 conference,” Kliavkoff said. “UCLA will incur a 100% increase in its team travel costs if it flies commercial in the Big Ten (8.1 million increase per year), a 160% increase if it charters half the time ($13.1 million per year), and a 290% percent increase if it charters every flight ($23 million increase per year).”

Kliavkoff did not cite how those figures were calculated or indicate if there was genuine belief that UCLA would consider charter travel for teams other than football and basketball.

According to a source familiar with UCLA’s internal estimates about increased travel cost, the school is working with the expectation that it will spend approximately $6-10 million more per year on travel in the Big Ten vs. the Pac-12.

A move to the Big Ten, Kliavkoff speculated, would also lead to UCLA spending more on salaries to fall in line with conference norms. He estimated UCLA would need to increase its athletic department salaries by approximately $15 million for UCLA to reach the average in the Big Ten.

“Any financial gains UCLA will achieve by joining the Big Ten will end up going to airline and charter companies, administrators and coaches’ salaries, and other recipients rather than providing any additional resources for student-athletes,” Kliavkoff said.

A spokesperson for UCLA declined comment.

In an interview with the New York Times, U.C. President Michael V. Drake, who was previously the president at Ohio State, said, “No decisions. I think everybody is collecting information. It’s an evolving situation.”

Beyond the financial impact for UCLA, which is widely understood to be the primary driving factor in UCLA’s move to the Big Ten, Kliavkoff said it will also hurt Cal, which, like UCLA, is also overseen by the UC system. With media rights negotiations ongoing, Kliavkoff said it was difficult to disclose the exact impact without disclosing confidential information, but confirmed the conference is soliciting bids with and without UCLA in the fold.

Beyond the financial component of the added travel, Kliavkoff said “published media research by the National Institutes of Health, studies conducted by the NCAA, and discussions with our own student-athlete leaders,” will have a negative impact on student-athletes mental health and take away from their academic pursuits. He added that it would also be a burden for family and alumni to face cross-country trips to see UCLA’s teams play.

Finally, Kliavkoff said added travel runs contrary to the UC system’s climate goals and works against UCLA’s commitment to “climate neutrality” by 2025.

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Sports

Jalen Hill, former UCLA basketball player, dies at age 22

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Former UCLA basketball player Jalen Hill has died at age 22, the school confirmed early Wednesday morning.

UCLA coach Mick Cronin said in a statement that Hill’s death is “heartbreaking” and said the former Bruins forward “was a warm-hearted young man with a great smile who has left us far too soon.”

Hill’s family said in an Instagram post that it learned of his death recently after Hill went missing in Costa Rica, but did not disclose further details.

“We know Jalen has played a part in the lives of so many people,” his family wrote in the Instagram post. “We also acknowledge the role that so many of you have played in his. As we try to navigate this devastating time in our lives, we ask that you please give us time to grieve.”

Josh Giles, Hill’s coach at Centennial High School in Corona, California, told the Los Angeles Times that Hill was “a great basketball player, but I just loved him as a person.”

“I’m so stunned I don’t even have an emotion right now,” said Giles, who also told the Times that he has been in contact with Hill’s family. “To hear something like this is next-level devastating.”

The 6-foot-10 Hill played parts of three seasons at UCLA before retiring after the 2020-21 season, citing anxiety and depression in an Instagram video announcing his decision. He left the team in February 2021 but did not address his status until April, saying he did not want to distract from the Bruins’ run to the Final Four.

“I just had to distance myself because the headspace I was in, it was damaging the team,” Hill said in the video. “So I didn’t want to restrict them from achieving their goals, too.”

Hill was one of three UCLA players, along with LiAngelo Ball and Cody Riley, who was arrested in China on shoplifting charges in November 2017. He was suspended for the 2017-18 season but returned to the program the next season and appeared in 77 games during his career with the Bruins, averaging 6.5 points and 6.4 rebounds.



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Science

Moon caves could provide shelter for astronauts

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A typical forecast on the moon is nowhere near cozy, temperatures range from boiling during the day to 280 below zero at night. However, according to a new study, unique features known as moon pits could offer an oasis from the rollercoaster temperatures.

To learn what it might be like inside these lunar pits, a team of planetary scientists at UCLA used thermal imaging from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and determined the temperature, at least in one of these pits, is always a consistent 63 degrees. The findings were recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and UCLA’s newsroom is calling it the discovery of year-round “sweater weather.”

One of the study authors, Tyler Horvath, a planetary science Ph.D. student at UCLA, said the pit could be the opening of a lava tube or cave and would be an ideal place to live for astronauts, offering perfect temperatures as well as protection from meteorites and radiation.

“Imagine a full day on the moon … you have 15 days of extreme hot that get up to well past the boiling point of water. And then you have 15 days of extreme cold, which is some of the coldest temperatures in the entire solar system,” Horvath said. “So being able to be in a place where you don’t have to spend energy to keep yourself warm throughout those 15 days of night is almost invaluable because during the night, if you’re trying to use solar power as your main form of getting energy, you can’t do that for 15 days.”

The UCLA research team focused on the chasm in the Sea of Tranquility or the Mare Trenquillitatis region, which is about 220 miles from where Apollo 11 landed and also an equal distance to the Apollo 17 landing site.

A cozy pixel on the moon

UCLA researchers spotted a single pixel in infrared images suggesting there are warmer spots on the Moon.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

NASA’s LRO spacecraft is continuously orbiting the moon, taking measurements with its suite of instruments, including the Diviner Lunar Radiometer, which has been mapping the moon’s thermal emissions constantly since 2009.

UCLA Planetary Scientist David Paige is the principal investigator of the Diviner instrument and the lead author of the new study about the moon pit.

Horvath was assigned to create a 3D model of one of these interesting pits in the Mare Trenquillitatis region. During that process, the team noticed a single pixel in the infrared images that was warmer than most spots on the moon at night when temperatures plummet.

“We noticed that really quickly it was able to warm up and maintain kind of a warmer temperature than the surface usually does at night,” Horvath explained. “We’re like, ‘Oh, this might be more interesting than we thought.’”

The Japanese SELENE/Kaguya Terrain Camera and Multiband Imager captured the Moon’s ancient volcanic region called Marius Hills.
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

After rechecking the Diviner data and considering what sunlight the pit gets, the team determined the temperature of the pit floor during the day. Unfortunately, this doesn’t confirm a cave opening, but that is still the working theory about these pits formed by ancient volcanic activity.

“It was still a cool result that if there’s a cave there, it would support temperatures that are 63 Fahrenheit all the time, 24 seven every single day forever, basically,” Horvath said.

How the Trenquillitatis pit and other caverns on the moon maintain their temperature comes down to a physics concept known as a blackbody cavity, which can self-regulate to keep its temperature.

“It’s essentially a surface that is a perfect emitter of radiation and absorber of radiation,” Horvath explains.

The temperature at the bottom of the pit also depends on its position relative to the Earth and moon from the sun.

“If you’re closer to the sun, the temperature would be hotter,” Horvath said. “If you’re further from the sun, it’d be colder.”

How did lava tubes form on the moon?

Even from Earth, it’s obvious the moon has interesting features, including craters of all shapes and sizes. In 2009, the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya orbiting the moon discovered a new type of lunar feature in the form of deep chasms that researchers believe could contain caves created by collapsed lava tubes, similar to ones found on Earth.

UCLA researchers believe the Moon has lava caves similar to Devil’s Throat in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Sergi Reboredo/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Horvath explains that billions of years ago, very intense volcanic activity and lava flows created the dark splotches we see today when we look up at the moon. The lava at the surface would cool first because it was exposed to the cold temperatures of space where the caverns below the lava still flowed.

“In some places, that lava will completely leave and will leave a hollow tube, a lava tube under the surface,” Horvath said. “These pits are kind of our ways to see that they exist, that there’s a way into them, and they could be everywhere.”

NASA describes the moon pits as “skylights” where the roof of the lava tube collapsed.

On Earth, the UCLA research team behind the study even visited a lava tube in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park known as the Devil’s Throat, which is similar in size to the Mare Trenquillitatis pit. The park is home to other lava tubes like the one pictured above that visitors can walk through.

Without physically going to the moon and rock climbing down into one of these pits, it will be hard for researchers to learn if these vast caves exist. Eventually, that might be possible because, in the next four years, NASA plans to return humans to the moon and establish a permanent base.

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Sports

Pac-12 expansion candidates: Where should the conference look first without USC and UCLA?

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The Pac-12 originally chose to be patient with expansion. It figured it could wait and find the perfect fit or hold steady. In the wake of USC and UCLA’s departure to the Big Ten, the conference has lost that luxury.

The Pac-12 Board of Directors met Friday morning and authorized the conference to explore expansion. The future of the conference is at stake. Said a former conference administrator to The Athletic, “I don’t know if they recover from this.”

The obvious hurdle: The Pac-12’s expansion options are not great. Despite its lack of football success and substandard media payouts, the conference always has offered some level of stability. That is no longer the case. USC and UCLA’s exits have cracked the foundation.

Commissioner George Kliavkoff’s first task is to keep Washington and Oregon in place. Without the Trojans and Bruins, the Pacific Northwest schools are holding the conference together. This won’t be easy. The second is to find the right schools that not only fit the Pac-12’s profile but also help the conference in its upcoming media rights negotiations. Let’s take a look.

The first calls

San Diego State: The Athletic asked a couple of industry sources about Pac-12 expansion candidates, and each one started here. The Pac-12 has never seemed to take San Diego State seriously, mostly because it operates in the California State University system, but it’s time to give the Mountain West school a strong look. San Diego has the 28th largest television market, which is not ideal, but adding the Aztecs would give the Pac-12 a presence in some part of Southern California. This cannot be ignored. Athletically, San Diego State recently has outperformed many Pac-12 schools in football and men’s basketball, so that’s not an issue. The football program has posted five seasons of 10-plus wins over the past seven years. The men’s basketball team has made the NCAA Tournament nine times since the 2009-10 season. Most important, the Aztecs have showed a commitment to taking the next step. This fall, they are scheduled to open $310 million Snapdragon Stadium as their next football home. There’s some momentum here.

Boise State: Another Mountain West program, Boise State has always been a popular expansion candidate simply because of its football success. It’s a nice starting point. The Broncos would compete in the Pac-12. In addition, the men’s basketball team just won the Mountain West title and played in the NCAA Tournament. Geographically, Boise also fits with the Pac-12 footprint. (Not that geography matters anymore.) The biggest drawback: The Boise market doesn’t add much media value.

Remember us?

Houston and TCU: Nine months ago, with the sport still in shock after Texas and Oklahoma announced their SEC intentions, the Pac-12 considered expansion. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Houston and TCU were the conference’s top targets. Ultimately, the Pac-12 stuck with 12, Houston settled into the Big 12 and everything looked fine. Until Thursday. Location-wise, this works. Dallas-Fort Worth is the nation’s fifth-largest media market. Houston is eighth. This would also put the Pac-12 into the heart of talent-rich Texas, which would help with recruiting.

Houston makes sense. TCU brings one issue in that the Pac-12 typically has had little interest in schools with religious affiliations. But over the past several years, TCU has distanced itself from those ties. The Pac-12 is also in no position to be picky.

Texas Tech: When it comes to the Big 12 schools — and you can add Baylor and Oklahoma State here as well — it ultimately comes down to this: With the Big 12 fairly stable, how much interest do they have in rescuing a staggered Pac-12? Per industry sources, Texas Tech long has fancied a move west, but that might recently have changed. Like Houston and TCU, this would get the Pac-12 into Texas, but that’s probably the biggest upside.

Worth checking out

SMU: If the Big 12 schools are not an option, SMU is worth a look. The American Athletic Conference school lacks the football punch that San Diego State and Boise State could provide, but SMU brings media value in Dallas. Like Houston and TCU, adding the Mustangs also would help with recruiting.

UNLV: Another Mountain West school, UNLV would offer little to enhance the Pac-12 in terms of competitive balance, but the Las Vegas market is attractive. In addition, the conference already has a presence in Sin City, holding its football championship and postseason basketball tournaments there.

— Max Olson, Christian Caple and Chris Vannini contributed reporting.

(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)



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Sports

Big Ten adding USC, UCLA further ruining charm we love about college football: Vannini

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We need to stop calling it conference “realignment” or “expansion.” The more accurate word would be “consolidation” — at least for the people who actually control what we currently know as college sports.

It’s coming. Maybe in a few years. Maybe in a decade or two. But there’s no stopping it now. With USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten, one year after Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations to the SEC, the college Super League(s) is on its way. College football as we knew it is on its last legs. It will eventually be replaced by an NFL Jr.-type sport, and the TV executives who have long dreamed about this will finally get their wish for a simpler product to package. The people at the right schools will make a lot of money, and the fans at the wrong schools will be left behind.

College administrators spent a year-plus telling the public that they worried name, image and likeness would ruin the purity of college football and turn off fans. Many did so while chasing any extra dollar they could find, even when that meant ending century-old rivalries and conference affiliations. Concern about the uncertainty in college athletics? Who do you think caused all that? Look in the mirror. Don’t let it be lost that this is coming from “non-profit” organizations, either.

It was never going to be NIL and a handful of million-dollar deals for players that turned off fans. It was, rather, slowly taking away everything that gave this sport its charm and moving toward a national corporate model, changes fueled primarily by money, especially television dollars. It’s like any other business now.

ESPN and Fox will never say they had a hand in these moves, but you’d have to be oblivious not to see the role they play. In 2011, then-Boston College athletic director Gene DeFilippo said ESPN told the ACC what to do in realignment, before later walking it back and issuing an apology, saying it was a misunderstanding. Last year, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby alleged ESPN (his conference’s own media partner) was working to destabilize the Big 12 by nudging teams to the SEC and AAC and released a cease-and-desist. (ESPN denied the claim.)

ESPN will soon have all of the SEC’s media rights. Fox owns 61 percent of the Big Ten Network and reportedly locked up half of the Big Ten’s next media rights deal and is sitting in on the league’s conversations with other potential media rights partners. The Big Ten and SEC had already been projected to perhaps double the other Power 5 conferences in TV revenue by the end of the decade. That’s why this is all happening.

Even if ESPN and Fox don’t directly say “Add this team,” they make it clear who they’ll pay more money for and who they won’t. Those conversations happen all the time. It’s basic business.

“I think they are quietly behind the scenes,” one FBS athletic director told The Athletic. “They really don’t like to be known as deciding who is in what league, but don’t think there aren’t conversations of, ‘If we take this property, how much value are they going to bring?’ We’re not picking random schools. … They just don’t want the optics of them deciding, but the money is coming from them. They have to tell the league or someone (the TV value of schools).”

It’s why we lost the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia. It’s why we lost the Border War between Kansas and Missouri. It’s why we lost Nebraska-Oklahoma. It’s why we lost Duke-Maryland. It’s why we’ll lose so many more rivalries. (And, yes, now it’s why we’ll get Texas-Texas A&M back.)

We’re going to get Big Ten games from noon ET Saturday until Sunday morning. ESPN will have the SEC in everything but the 10 p.m. kickoff window. Even without the money, the other conferences are going to be squeezed out of the main TV windows on the biggest channels.

It may feel like we’re heading toward an ESPN conference and a Fox conference, though Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren has been a proponent of having multiple media partners. Competition is needed to drive up the price, after all. Maybe it’s CBS, NBC, ESPN and/or Apple. But Fox still wields the power. Ultimately, it’s two television organizations going all-in on the most valuable thing left on TV — live football — and leaving all kinds of change in the wake.

That’s all in the short term, but let’s step back for a broader look. What are the long-term effects? Some generations grew up with the Southwest Conference. My generation grew up with Big East football. Neither exists anymore. Change in college football has been constant. So it’s not hard now to imagine younger generations growing up with just two major conferences.

This move is not only about this generation of fans, even though the immediate television money will be enormous. It’s also about the next generation. How do you explain this move to Washington State fans? Or Oregon State fans? Or Iowa State fans? Or Kansas State fans? You can’t. You hope they still watch and wait for the next generation to grow up.

When college football reaches the inevitable end of this road with 30 to 40 teams left at the highest level, the powers that be won’t want you to hand down your Washington State fandom to your children. They’ll want your kids to latch on to USC or Texas or Alabama, much like the Golden State Warriors or the Kansas City Chiefs have fans all over the world. It’s about brands now, because brands can be sold to anyone.

That’s the ultimate endgame of realignment, and why it’s not actually realignment. After it gets big, it’ll shrink. Whether the superconferences kick out members or the biggest brands go off on their own, they’ll eventually drop the dead weight that hurts the TV value, even if they’re in the Big Ten or SEC today. It may not even be a decision made by anyone currently in a position of power, but when you’ve started down the road of corporate reorganization, you always reach that stage, and the real charm of the sport will be gone. It’s already happened in baseball with the shrinking of the minor leagues.

What is college football at that point? If the SEC and Big Ten have their own playoff(s), will Texas Tech or Oregon State fans care? Will NFL fans watch more college football if it’s organized into a cleaner and more accessible version of the NBA G-League?

I don’t know. It’s not hard to see swaths of hardcore fans bailing if their team is left out of the top tier. Maybe not all at once, but slowly over time. Or maybe there’s enough casual college football fandom for an NFL Jr. to survive and thrive. That’s the bet being made now through TV.

In the end, the SEC and the Big Ten have the largest quantities of passionate fans. That’s what this comes down to. No amount of commissioner maneuvering could change that. Eventually, the schools with their own large fan bases outside those leagues were going to join the others.

Maybe there was no way to stop this. Maybe the biggest schools were always going to be pulled together in the end and a century-plus of regional college football was always going to die and be replaced by a national sport. It’s become a television product first and foremost. That’s become evident for more than 20 years now, from late kickoffs to last-minute start time announcements to endless TV timeouts. It runs the sport.

The question now is if fans will still care, if this big-money play will keep enough of them around.

I grew up in Big Ten country. I rooted for Michigan as a kid and then attended Michigan State. As far as I can tell from my Big Ten circles and what I’ve seen elsewhere, after the initial shock, the general reaction among those fans to the USC/UCLA news was mostly apathy. Sure, some are excited. Some hate it, too. Most felt powerless to do anything about it, a grim acceptance that the sport they grew up with is changing no matter how they feel. And these are fans of the winners in this game of musical chairs.

This sport had always been unique. It’s why we fell in love with it. The huge pool of teams to follow. The regional flair. The small towns. The states that don’t have professional sports teams. The intensity of the rivalries. The generational upsets. The connections to a school as alumni. The messiness and nonsense was the charm of it all. The biggest stadiums in this country host college games, not professional. Few NFL fans care about the league’s history before the Super Bowl. College football fans can tell you a story about a game from 1917.

It’s clear now that a lot of the charm that draw us to college football is on its way out. All in the name of finding every last dollar. So pour one out for the 2007 season. For Boise State-Oklahoma. For split national titles. For Appalachian State-Michigan. For the Rose Bowl.

I’ll still be watching. So will millions of others. The sport isn’t going to die. It just won’t be what so many of us fell in love with in the first place, and a lot of fans will be left behind.

(Photo: Richard Mackson / USA Today)



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USC and UCLA join Big Ten: Live news updates as Pac-12 powers kick start more conference realignment

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Big Ten university presidents voted Thursday night to accept the applications of USC and UCLA to join the conference, marking a seismic shift on the collegiate athletics landscape. The Trojans and Bruins will leave the Pac-12 for their new league in 2024 as the Big Ten expands from coast-to-coast with a move that rivals the SEC’s poaching of Oklahoma and Texas from the Big 12 last year.

The upcoming move comes as the Pac-12’s media rights deal is set to expire in 2024 and while the Big Ten is negotiating a new media rights deal that could exceed $1 billion annually. As for the Pac-12, the shift puts the league and its commissioner, George Kliavkoff, in a precarious position. Thursday marked Kliavkoff’s one-year anniversary on the job.

USC and UCLA are two of the Pac-12’s most valuable brands, both in terms of success and visibility. Their entries into the Big Ten will create a second superconference along with the expanding SEC. Both will stand at 16 teams after USC and UCLA move to the Big Ten as Texas and Oklahoma enter the SEC, which is slated to happen in 2025.

As this latest realignment saga plays out, CBS Sports will continue covering this developing story with live updates below.

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In a ‘bold, ambitious step,’ Big Ten grows to 16 with additions of USC, UCLA | Football

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EVAN BLAND
Omaha World-Herald

USC and UCLA are officially set to join the Big Ten Conference beginning with the 2024-25 season, marking perhaps the largest seismic and historic shift yet amid the ever-changing landscape of college athletics.

The shocking news played out publicly across roughly seven hours Thursday as the two flagship Pac-12 Conference schools went from being reportedly interested in changing leagues to each school and league officially acknowledging their future destinations by the end of business hours on the West Coast.




UCLA running back Zach Charbonnet (24) runs the ball in for a touchdown as Southern California defensive lineman Jacob Lichtenstein (97) tries to stop him during the second half of the team’s game in 2021.



Associated Press file photo


The Big Ten’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors voted unanimously to accept the application of membership from each school Thursday evening. And while the news sent shockwaves through college sports, national reports indicated — and the Big Ten confirmed — the move had been in the works behind the scenes for weeks.

One source told The Athletic that each school was asked two weeks ago to conduct a feasibility study about adding USC and UCLA.

The feedback, evidently, was positive.

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Now the Big Ten joins the SEC as a 16-team league, only with a truly national footprint from Jersey Shore to Malibu Beach. The Los Angeles-based schools will bring along every sport that the Big Ten fields when they become full members Aug. 2, 2024.

“Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports,” USC athletic director Mike Bohn said in a release. “We are excited that our values align with the league’s member institutions.”

USC and UCLA reportedly approached the Big Ten with a desire to join and become the league’s first new schools since it added Rutgers and Maryland in 2014 and Nebraska in 2011 during the early stages of conference realignment. The move is also viewed as a response to the SEC landing Texas and Oklahoma out of the Big 12 Conference last summer and yet another step closer to the SEC and Big Ten separating themselves financially and in total membership from everyone else, including their other Power Five peers.

The additions are also likely why the Big Ten had yet to announce its plan to keep or do away with football divisions while other leagues including the Pac-12 and ACC have already scrapped them.


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Meanwhile, the conference remains in the midst of negotiating its television rights deal with Fox and others, with previous estimates that it will net north of $1 billion in its next round of contracts. That figure is guaranteed to now rise further with the addition of another major media market in Los Angeles and two brand-name universities. Apple has already reached out asking to reengage in negotiations, according to a report from Sports Business Journal.

Such financial stability will be a boon for the newcomers. The LA Times in January reported that UCLA’s Athletic Department absorbed a loss of $62.5 million for the 2021 fiscal year.

“Although this move increases travel distances for teams, the resources offered by Big Ten membership may allow for more efficient transportation options,” UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and athletic director Martin Jarmond said in a statement.

The transition could in theory be relatively smooth for USC and UCLA because their grant of rights are linked to the current Pac-12 TV deal, which expires after the 2023-24 school year.

Multiple reports also indicated Big Ten expansion may not be over. Would remaining Pac-12 members like Washington and Oregon also be possibilities to change leagues? What about other holdovers in that conference like Stanford?

Notre Dame — a longtime siren of the Big Ten — may be more in play once again to join a conference in football. The Irish and their contract with NBC runs through at least 2025 on a deal reportedly worth $15 million annually. Should NBC be part of the Big Ten’s new-look media rights deal moving forward, it could potentially help bridge the longtime distance between the league and school.

“It’s really unsustainable to be an independent now,” a source told ESPN.


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The two Pac-12 additions on their own are watershed moments in the 126-year history of the Big Ten, originally known as the Western Intercollegiate Conference, and send ripple effects throughout the league.

For Nebraska, the decision moves it from the western frontier of the conference to the geographic center. Husker administrators released a statement Thursday evening welcoming the Bruins and Trojans.

“This is an exciting and historic day for the Big Ten Conference and the University of Nebraska,” Chancellor Ronnie Green and athletic director Trev Alberts said in a joint statement. “The addition of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten is a bold, ambitious step during a time of historic change in the collegiate athletics landscape. These institutions will add two world-class athletic departments and brands to the Big Ten and stretch the Conference footprint from coast to coast.”

The statement also cited NU’s large base of alumni in California that can watch games and its history of recruiting success in the state.

“For the University of Nebraska, there are many positives associated with this expansion,” the statement said. “UNL has a large alumni base in California that will have a great opportunity to regularly watch our teams compete in historical athletic venues in Southern California. Nebraska has had a history of success recruiting athletes from California, and this will only enhance Nebraska’s profile in a fertile recruiting ground. We welcome UCLA and USC to the Big Ten Conference and look forward to competing with them in the future.”

The next move for the Pac-12 remains unclear. It could seek to add current or future Big 12 members including BYU or attempt to stand pat. The conference had been part of a so-called “Alliance” with the Big Ten and ACC for the last year.

That partnership, for all intents and purposes, now ceases to exist.

Said the Pac-12: “While we are extremely surprised and disappointed by the news coming out of UCLA and USC today, we have a long and storied history in athletics, academics, and leadership in supporting student-athletes that we’re confident will continue to thrive and grow into the future.”​


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USC and UCLA to join Big Ten conference, shaking up college sports landscape

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Both universities announced their intentions to swap conferences in separate statements on Thursday. The Pac-12 said it was “extremely surprised and disappointed” by the move.

They will be joining a conference with the likes of the University of Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State, creating a 16-member conference to rival the Southeastern Conference (SEC).

Less than a year ago, a similar move shook the college football world when the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma accepted invitations to join the SEC from the Big 12.

According to USC, the Big Ten voted to accept both universities as members effective August 2, 2024.

The shift has major implications for upcoming media rights agreements. USC says it will see out its current deal with the Pac-12 until it expires in 2024.

“Ultimately, the Big Ten is the best home for USC and Trojan athletics as we move into the new world of collegiate sports,” USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn said in a statement. “We also will benefit from the stability and strength of the conference; the athletic caliber of Big Ten institutions; the increased visibility, exposure, and resources the conference will bring our student-athletes and programs; and the ability to expand engagement with our passionate alumni nationwide.”

UCLA’s statement noted increased NIL opportunities for athletes within the conference, a reference to Name, Image and Likeness deals. Last year, the NCAA permitted athletes to make money off signing autographs or endorsement contracts.

“Big Ten membership offers Bruins exciting new competitive opportunities and a broader national media platform for our student-athletes to compete and showcase their talents. Specifically, this move will enhance Name, Image and Likeness opportunities through greater exposure for our student-athletes and offer new partnerships with entities across the country,” said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and athletics director Martin Jarmond.

UCLA also highlighted “better television time slots for our road games” while acknowledging an increase in travel time to away games.

The current members of the Big Ten are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Rutgers.

The Big Ten issued a statement saying it voted unanimously to accept both universities after weighing their applications to join.

“As the national leader in academics and athletics for over 126 years, the Big Ten Conference has historically evaluated its membership with the collective goal to forward the academic and athletic mission for student-athletes under the umbrella of higher education,” Commissioner Kevin Warren said. “I am thankful for the collaborative efforts of our campus leadership, athletics directors and Council of Presidents and Chancellors who recognize the changing landscape of college athletics, methodically reviewed each request, and took appropriate action based on our consensus.”

In its statement, the Pac-12 said it will “continue to thrive” despite the departure of the two colleges.

“We’ve long been known as the Conference of Champions, and we’re unwavering in our commitment to extend that title,” the Pac-12 Conference said in a statement. “We will continue to develop new and innovative programs that directly benefit our member institutions, and we look forward to partnering with current and potential members to pioneer the future of college athletics together.”

CNN’s Jacob Lev contributed to this report.

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