The Big Ten Conference is not going to waste the ability to put USC and UCLA football on in the late-night time slot. The Big Ten wouldn’t have welcomed the Trojans and Bruins to the conference if it wasn’t prepared to do that. Having a share of a time window which used to exclusively belong (among the Power Five conferences) to the Pac-12 is valuable to the Big Ten. The conference will show USC and UCLA football games in the 10 p.m Eastern window.
However: The conference is very likely to put UCLA, not USC, in that window with more regularity. That’s the prediction we made on our May 22 broadcast with Mark Rogers on his USC show at The Voice of College Football.
USC is going to be featured on NBC Sports, the network which will have the prime-time Big Ten game of the week under the new Big Ten football media deal. USC on NBC in the 7:30 p.m. Eastern (4:30 p.m. Pacific) window will be a frequent part of future college football Saturdays. When the Trojans visit an Eastern time zone Big Ten school such as Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, or Michigan State, that will be the Fox Big Noon Saturday game. When USC visits Maryland, Rutgers, Indiana, or another mid-tier Big Ten team, that will be a 3:30 Eastern (12:30 Pacific) CBS game, since CBS gets the Big Ten’s No. 3 selection under the new media rights deal.
USC is the featured attraction here. UCLA is the happy passenger which will do what the Big Ten wants in exchange for collecting checks which will reduce the athletic department’s budgetary problems.
If the Big Ten has 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. Eastern time conference games on TV, UCLA is going to play more of those than USC. You can be confident about that. We certainly are:
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