As one of the most famous alumni of Rutgers, Alexi Lalas has an opinion on the expansion of the Big Ten to include UCLA and USC. Chief among those thoughts? Changing the name of the Big Ten now that it will soon be at 16 teams.
Lalas has an opinion on most things, but that is beside the point.
Last week, UCLA and USC were added to the Big Ten, expanding the leaders and legends to now have a West Coast footprint. A rather significant footprint at that. The addition of the two Los Angeles colleges helps the Big Ten further expand in both football and basketball while adding a vitally important media market.
A former men’s soccer player at Rutgers, Lalas went on to do alright after four years on the banks. He played for the United States national team, including starring in the 1994 World Cup. After that, he became the first American to ever play in Italy’s famed Serie A, then returned in 1996 to MLS where he became an All-Star and one of the faces of the then-emerging league.
He made 96 appearances with the United States national team, scoring 10 goals.
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Now an analyst with FoxSports, Lalas weighed in on the Big Ten expansion in his recent podcast, intertwining some humor into the process.
“Number one, we’re talking about the Big Ten, right? The Big Ten has not been the Big Ten for a long time, okay? And this certainly only makes it that much bigger. So it’s not 10 and it’s never going to be 10 going forward. So first off, a rebrand is in order. All right, call it the ‘Big League’ or whatever you want to call it. I like the ‘Big thing.’ I think you can do something with that, but stop with the numbers, right? Now because it’s just getting absurd,” Lalas said on the ‘State of the Union’ podcast this week.
“As far as the footprint out there…I come at it from I want to see great teams play. I come in and maybe from to use the soccer world- from a Super League perspective and these are…they don’t like to be called businesses.
“But let’s be honest, when it comes to universities and colleges out there, they are businesses and certainly their athletic programs are businesses in that while they can be nonprofits, there is still a business element in the way that they run. And whether it’s businesses, whether it’s schools, whether it’s human beings, we are all going to do what is beneficial to us. Okay, it doesn’t mean that there’s not you don’t think about others. It doesn’t mean you can’t be charitable, but ultimately, this is good for the likes of UCLA, and USC.”
In terms of soccer, UCLA finished the season 9-6-1 and ranked No. 22.
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Historically, they are one of the best programs in college soccer history. The men’s soccer program has won five NCAA Tournament titles and has made the tournament five times since 2014.
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