When UCLA and USC announced plans to join the Big Ten for the 2024 football season, it created perhaps the most seismic change ever in conference realignment. The Pac-12 Conference ultimately broke apart with eight other schools leaving for different conferences, including Oregon and Washington following the Los Angeles-based universities to the Big Ten.
USC and UCLA entered their Big Ten era as fully vested financial partners with football the driving force. But for USC and especially UCLA, basketball does more than just ride shotgun. UCLA men's basketball ranks among college sports' greatest dynasties. Its women's basketball program finished 37-1 and won the NCAA championship in April. With national player of the year Juju Watkins, USC's women claimed the Big Ten title in 2024-25, their first Big Ten season. Entering their third Big Ten season, all four basketball programs are ranked.
But do they feel like Big Ten members? Earlier this summer at the Terranea Resort outside of Los Angeles, The Athletic spoke with all four head coaches about their successes, challenges and how their universities can build an even better future in the Big Ten. All four agreed there were positives — and a few concerns — about their relationship with a conference that stretches from ocean to ocean.
"We've reaped every benefit of the larger stage," USC women's basketball coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "We play in front of sold-out arenas on the road. The things that are challenges, I think we've met them head-on and not used any distance or any plane flight as an excuse. We're excited to be in the conference, and I think it's given us every opportunity to rise to the top of our sport because of being in the Big Ten."
Added USC men's basketball coach Eric Musselman: "It's great for us and great for the Big Ten. It's much more of a pro model, just with the travel and geographically covering so many major media markets."
All four programs saw much larger road environments in the Big Ten, especially in women's basketball. For the men, road attendance grew by 25.2 percent (USC) and 12.6 percent (UCLA) from 2023 through 2026. The women saw increases of 30.5 percent (UCLA) and 180.6 percent (USC) over the same span. For both women's programs and USC men, their home attendance also grew substantially. Considering Big Ten schools collectively share 35 percent of gate revenue in men's basketball, it's a financial perk.
Exposure on viewing platforms provides a greater advantage, the coaches said. Every conference men's basketball game is available on the league's widely available television or streaming partners, as are all but seven USC and UCLA women's league contests. The other games stream on BTN-plus, a separate option usually with student broadcasters. In their final Pac-12 season, only four women's basketball league games combined (three UCLA, one USC) aired on a national platform; the rest were on the Pac-12 Network, which had limited distribution.
"I can say that there was a ton of talent on the teams that I've coached or coached against in the Pac-12, and just not enough people saw us," Gottlieb said. "And now just being in every major market on every major station, that's an exciting thing."
Travel, however, remains the greatest challenge for all four programs. The league office and its members have tweaked scheduling each year, but it's always going to be an issue.
Big Ten men's basketball has 20 conference games, and the former Pac-12 schools play each other twice. For the seven games in the Eastern or Central time zone, the West Coast men's basketball teams originally traveled east four times with three trips of two games and one solo contest, either to Minnesota or Nebraska. This year, USC requested a four-game road trip, which it will play from Dec. 30 through Jan. 8. All of those games take place before spring semester classes begin Jan. 11.
"We're all learning together," Musselman said.
The Big Ten women have 18 league games (nine road trips) with only one double-play opponent. The USC and UCLA programs have front-loaded several of their eastern trips during semester or quarter breaks. By Jan. 11, USC has only three eastern games (two trips) remaining. UCLA has only one eastern trip (two games) after Jan. 24.
UCLA coach Cori Close successfully lobbied the Big Ten for additional tweaks, including later tipoffs for the first game on a road trip and earlier start times for the second game. The changes help the teams adjust better when crossing time zones and then return at an earlier time, she said.
No matter the distance, schedule sequencing usually frustrates all coaches, and Bruins men's coach Mick Cronin is no exception. Last season, he lashed out at Big Ten officials after playing five of his first seven league games on the road. The Big Ten office then alerted Cronin that it gave UCLA early away games to limit late-season travel, a reason he said he understood.
Unlike Musselman, Cronin wasn't interested in road trips with more than two games — "I think you've still got to play it like college basketball." Cronin prefers only one day off between games on a road trip, but a two-day prep is considered a Big Ten scheduling principle and requires both teams to agree. The Big Ten holdovers prefer the extra day.
Musselman and the women's coaches seem excited about their Big Ten allegiance, but Cronin looks at the arrangement differently. He's not negative toward the league but views the situation with a businesslike tone.
"How I look at it, we're in a Midwest conference, and I feel that way from Maryland and Rutgers as well," Cronin said. "That's just the way it is. I mean, I don't think it'll feel normal for anybody for years, and that's even for what I call them: the Midwest ones, the Michigans, Ohio State, Indiana, the original 10. I'm sure it's just as weird for them as it is for us.
"I'd be a proponent — if you asked me — of just getting the biggest football schools and make four conferences and regionalize it. In the Power 4, whatever it is, chop them up and have four leagues and regionalize them. That would make too much sense."
By playing USC, Oregon and Washington twice and the other 14 schools once, Cronin said it feels less like a conference than a scheduling arrangement.
"When I play Arizona, Gonzaga, what's the difference?" Cronin asked, comparing his Big Ten single-play opponents alongside teams he plays annually in nonconference action. "The (NCAA tournament selection) committee will tell you they don't care what your conference record is; they're looking at your record."
But the exposure is mutually beneficial. Before the NCAA tournament, Nielsen ranked the top 10 teams in both men's and women's basketball based on linear television viewership and social media followers. Four Big Ten men's teams (No. 4 Michigan, No. 7 Illinois, No. 8 Indiana, No. 9 Ohio State) and two women's teams (No. 1 Iowa and No. 10 Michigan) made the list. Following the NCAA tournament, Nielsen's top five men's teams included Michigan (No. 1), Purdue (No. 4) and Illinois (No. 5) while UCLA's women were No. 1. None of their former Pac-12 foes made either list.
This year in Big Ten-only play, UCLA and USC men make nine appearances on CBS, NBC or Fox while USC and UCLA women will play in five games on either Fox or NBC. It's that exposure on major networks — among other benefits — that has Close excited about how the league and the Los Angeles schools will grow together over time.
"We want them to be like, 'I'm so glad we added UCLA and USC,'" Close said. "That's really what I have felt responsibility to do as the national championship coach, is that it gives me a platform to not just talk about our players in UCLA, but the Big Ten, and how supportive we have felt, how good the other coaches have made me, the different environments, the varied styles of play, the increased exposure, the way the Big Ten does storytelling and content creation. So, I really do think all those things really fit together.
"We believe we're in the best and most important market in the country, so why wouldn't we want to be a part of the best conference in the country?"
This article originally appeared in The Athletic .
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