What one college athletics super poacher began last July, the other accelerated this week. And the entire enterprise now is hurtling toward a complete demolition and rebuild in the coming years.
More than ever, we are entering the long-anticipated, much-theorized era of two megapower conferences, the Southeastern and the Big Ten. They’ve long been the richest, but their successive summer blockbuster moves to acquire the best of the rest of the Power 5 leagues have widened the chasm between them and everyone else.
The stunning (but ultimately unsurprising) news broke Wednesday that USC and UCLA, the media-rights linchpins of the Pac-12, are in advanced negotiations to leave that league for the Big Ten. This was the response to the SEC’s massive acquisition of 2021, when it accepted Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12. Conference rivals turned colluding escapees. There almost certainly will be more aftershocks to come.
