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Friday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, Jonas Knox Brady Quinn and LaVar Arrington explain the significance of USC and UCLA deciding to leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten Conference in 2024. It makes the Big Ten the only college conference that has a nationwide reach which will boost viewership and their TV rights. The move was actually a longtime coming and we're only in the beginning of college football realignment which is moving towards a two super-conference system.
Brady Quinn: "As far as football goes, USC is the best football program in the Pac-12. As far as basketball, UCLA is the best basketball program in the Pac-12. And you're taking both those two brands in the second biggest media market in the country, and you're adding them to your roster. There is so much value from the standpoint of the Big 10, their geographic footprint and their ability to go literally from East Coast to West. There is no other conference in sports that can say they can do that. None. So literally you go from the Jersey Shore, from DC, all the way to LA and that is huge, and it's powerful, and it's why the Big 10's rights are gonna go for more than the SEC, more than anything else right now.
When you think about the big media markets, it encompasses Chicago, number three as far as media markets. It encompasses LA now, number two in media markets. You do brush up against the East Coast. You get those bigger, bigger markets that traditionally aren't college football towns but now people are gonna start paying attention and people are gonna start watching more. And so your window on Saturdays, it starts at noon to watch games, and it can go all the way until 10pm pacific time. That is a huge, huge revenue driver for a conference where the SEC just doesn't have that."