Three years ago on Tuesday, the world of college athletics was turned upside down. On July 1, 2022, USC and UCLA stunned everyone when they announced they would be leaving the Pac-12 Conference after a century in the league to join the Big Ten.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the entire landscape of collegiate sports changed that day. The Trojans and Bruins leaving the Pac-12 set off a series of events that led to the conference collapsing—although the league is coming back as a glorified Group of Five conference—and a new “Power Two” emerging in college football. Today, the Big Ten and SEC are head and shoulders above the rest of the sport, with everyone else fighting for those two conferences’ scraps.
Now, three years later, USC and UCLA have played a full season in the Big Ten, to mixed results. While the Trojans and Bruins had plenty of success in women’s basketball, baseball, and Olympic sports, both schools struggled on the football field in their debut campaign in the conference. Oregon, however, which also joined the league this past season, had no such problem, running the table and winning the Big Ten in Year 1.
July 1, 2022 will forever go down as a historic day in both USC and college sports history. Three years later, however, it feels like ancient history. In order to prove the decision was justified, the Trojans must start winning on the football field and showing that they truly belong in the conference.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Looking back at the three-year anniversary of USC’s move to the Big Ten
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
