The Big Ten and the SEC are the new superpowers of college football. But which conference has won the latest round of expansion?
Last summer, the SEC raided Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12, giving them two big pieces in the chess match of conference realignment. In June, the Big Ten landed UCLA and USC. The move out west for the Big Ten gives them a marquee college football program in USC and two universities in the second-largest media market in the country.
The Big Ten now is in the top four media markets, for what it’s worth (and that fact is certainly worth a lot).
But who has won the latest round of college football alignment?
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Former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who played for UConn, said that the Big Ten were the winners here. He made his comments on ESPN on Tuesday morning.
“I think it is USC, UCLA to the Big Ten. Listen the SEC is the king of the castle, they have been for a long time and they deserve that,” Orlovsky said on ESPN on Tuesday morning.
“But the big key is the USC piece. We have no idea what OU is without Lincoln Riley as their head coach. Brett Venables comes over, defensive coordinator at Clemson, very highly thought of. We just don’t know it yet.
“I know what Lincoln (Riley) is as a head coach at OU…and now I’m thinking what he could become as head coach at USC which is significantly more fertile ground when it comes to recruiting athletes. This is a guy who in five seasons with Oklahoma won 85 percent of their games, 85 percent of their games. They won four Big 12 titles and three times went to the College Football Playoff. The talent that is in Southern California that has been kind of moving north to Oregon, he is going to be able to pull (that) back down. Specifically the quarterbacks. And that is a huge part of this equation.”
Also appearing on the ESPN panel was Paul Finebaum, the SEC analyst and college football insider for the network.
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Orlavsky also noted that UCLA was 8-4 in 2021 “and there is a lot of conversation around that program that they are heading in the right direction.”
Finebaum agreed with Orlovsky that the Big Ten’s move for the two Los Angeles programs was big. But he cautioned Orlovsky that the recency bias in his argument isn’t watertight.
“You can’t base conference expansion on today, you have to project into the future. And it is also worth remembering that Lincoln Riley replaced a legend in Bob Stoops,” Finebaum said.
“The point being, the fact that USC is going to the Big Ten is really what this is about. UCLA is not an important part of the conversation. The city of Los Angeles is moving to the Big Ten footprint. That is incredibly dramatic and important when you’re a television executive; this is a Fox property and they’re looking at it going ‘When USC wins, they are huge in the city of Los Angeles.’ Which can not be underestimated.”
Beyond the ratings, Finebaum isn’t convinced that the SEC’s move to mainly add Texas is going to be a windfall for the conference or the Longhorns on the playing field.
“Sure, Oklahoma is fantastic and Texas is a brand. But Texas has won I think three conference championships in the last 25 years. Two of those are in the Big 12. We’ve already heard what Dan said (what) Oklahoma has done the past five to six years…(Texas) not been relevant since they (played) Alabama in the 2009 Rose Bowl. Yea, they had Vince Young, they had a run. But they haven’t had anything since then. They’ve been a disaster,” Finebaum said.
“That’s why they’re getting out of the Big 12 and running to the SEC because they’re hoping it will enhance their recruit – which it already has I think with Arch Manning. And it will get them to a level where Texas A&M is right now. There is a lot more to it today. Texas had to make that move. As much as it pains me at the SEC media days, the move two weeks ago was the biggest move of the two.”
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