College sports world reacts to shocking UCLA, USC report

College realignment never dies, it simply waits until you least expect it.

In a move that could shift the college sports landscape pretty significantly, Pac-12 insider Jon Wilner is reporting Thursday that USC and UCLA are planning to leave the conference and join the Big Ten Conference.

Wilner makes it clear in his tweet that the schools have not finalized the details yet, but if he’s willing to put this out there, there’s gotta be a strong reality to it happening.

Bruce Feldman and Dan Wolken also chimed in to back up the report.

I’ve confirmed that this is accurate. USC and UCLA are pursuing Big 10 membership, per sources. I wouldn’t rule out future expansion of Big 10 either. https://t.co/lwjhNWp4Ts

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) June 30, 2022

College athletics has been changing in spurts over the last few decades and while the idea of two schools in Los Angeles playing in the Midwestern-based Big Ten might have sounded impossible just a decade ago, we already have Rutgers and Maryland in the Big Ten while Texas and Oklahoma are en route to the SEC and college football’s powers centralize their grasp on control and money even further.

This is a bombshell report that will have a massive impact on the path forward for the Pac-12 (now 10 again?), the Big Ten (which could expand even further), the ACC (which needs to keep up with the Big Ten and SEC), and the rest of the sport.

Plenty more to come on this for sure, but the immediate reactions around the college sports world were chaotic as expected.

[Jon Wilner]