In a move that will reverberate throughout the world of college athletics USC and UCLA, two of the most storied programs in the country, are preparing to leave the PAC-12 for the Big Ten in time for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. NYU Sports Law professor and co-host of the Conduct Detrimental podcast, Dan Lust, says this probably spells the end of the so-called “Power 5.”
“At this point, the optics look like a ‘Super 2,’ and you have two superconferences all of a sudden and if I’m another conference commissioner I’m going to be pretty worried and holding tight to my schools,” said Lust.
Lust says the SEC’s move to poach Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12 last year certainly pushed the Big Ten to make a counter of its own. Now it adds the nation’s second-largest television market to its roster just before it finalizes a new television deal with Fox and raises its level of competition within the league.
“It’s a little bit of an arms race,” he said. “For the longest time, obviously, I think the SEC is viewed as being the powerhouse of all powerhouses, but for a period of time, the Big Ten was right there with them. In order to play with the best of them, you’ve got to keep pace.”
Lust says that he expects more dominoes to fall as other conferences scramble to remain viable against these two juggernauts. One of the biggest could be on the national level as the notion of amateurism in collegiate athletics, which took a major hit from the emergence of NIL, will be tested by players who see the money changing hands and ask for their fair share.
“At what point is someone going to say ‘we should try to unionize’,” said Lust. “And that battle is now going on in the courts in a couple of different places in our country…just what other rights should athletes be entitled to.”
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