Tag: usc big ten

USC is a football school — Trojans win first Big Ten championship by beating UCLA

It’s called football in the rest of the world. Americans might call it soccer, but USC did just win a Big Ten regular season championship by beating UCLA.

The USC Trojans really are having football success in the Big Ten. Think we’re making that up? It’s actually true, just as long as you recognize that the sport Americans call soccer is referred to as football in the rest of the world. USC women’s soccer played a proper football match on Sunday against the UCLA Bruins. The Trojans, to use international football parlance, kept a “clean sheet” against UCLA, beating the Bruins 1-0 to win the USC women’s soccer program’s first-ever Big Ten regular-season championship. This is a football success story every USC fan can take pride in.

Maile Hayes scored the day’s only goal, tallying the winning score in the 36th minute. USC goalkeeper Laurence Gladu made a big save on UCLA’s Maya Evans in the 67th minute and was able to complete the 90-minute shutout with a superb performance. On a Sunday when Italian football powerhouses Inter Milan and Juventus played a shockingly wild and undisciplined 4-4 match, USC showed how to play top-class defense and keep its opponent under wraps for a full match.

The Ancient Men and Women of Troy would be very proud of these Trojans, who get to lift a Big Ten championship trophy. Congratulations to USC women’s soccer, which has an excellent bunch of footballers. USC’s identity as a football school goes beyond Saturdays.

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Lincoln Riley 2 for 1 special might unlock USC success in Big Ten

Lincoln Riley has a special fondness for the Arnold brothers at USC. Let’s see what they do on the field.

USC football head coach Lincoln Riley recently talked in a Zoom call about the recruitment of the Arnold brothers, Akili and Easton Mascarenas, and what that might mean for the Trojans in the Big Ten:

We had a couple of conversations and it was one of those that we knew was going to happen pretty fast. I actually flew to Corvallis in a driving rainstorm and I went and met both of them at their apartment. I ended up staying at their apartment for two hours, just the three of us, and we just we had a great talk. It’s not hard to get in pretty deep with them. You could tell right away they were passionate about football, they were passionate about going to a place where they felt like they had a chance to really go win big. They were passionate about hearing my vision for our program and where we were headed, where they could obviously be of service, and where I thought the roles could align.

I got to be honest: of all the recruiting visits and all the home visits and all the ones over the years that sometimes admittedly run together a little bit when you look back on them, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a more high-energy, fun meeting — literally just the three of us in some college kids’ apartment in Corvallis — we had a great time. We ended up leaving much later than anticipated because it was hard to end it, but you could just just feel their vibe and energy towards each other competitively, their passion for it. You could feel it from the minute I walked in the door. It was a lot of fun. They’re glad they’re on our team.

 

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New Big Ten teams will not play in league affiliated bowl games in 2024, 2025

The four new Big Ten teams will not be eligible to play in the league’s bowl games this year or next

The four new Big Ten teams will not be eligible to play in the league’s bowl games this year or next.

Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark confirmed on Tuesday that the 10 schools leaving the Pac-12 will still play in the Pac-12 affiliated bowls over the next two seasons. That would mean USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington will not be selected to play in any Big Ten bowl games this year or next.

This would in theory open up more opportunities for other Big Ten teams to land in the league’s bowl games. This could be very impactful for the Spartans, who are projected to be a fringe bowl-eligible team this year.

Click on the post below to read more from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network:

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Big Ten football was awful this past weekend, but USC might not take advantage

The Trojans could easily be successful in the #B1G, but their level of line play is not where it needs to be. It’s annoying.

There was a lot of bad and hard-to-watch football over the weekend. USC played a bad game against Utah, but the Big Ten served up a number of noticeably clunky and clumsy games as well.

Iowa managed just two yards in the second half of a 12-10 loss to Minnesota.

Nebraska beat Northwestern 17-9 in a game with very little offense.

Even the big game of the day in the Big Ten, Penn State-Ohio State, was a 60-minute struggle for both teams. Ohio State beat Penn State but scored only 20 points and was bailed out by a Penn State penalty which denied the Nittany Lions a scoop-and-score defensive touchdown. As is, Penn State didn’t score a single touchdown.

The football was so bad in the Big Ten that it underscored one point: Any team with an elite offensive line and quality skill position players is in a position to thrive in the conference.

USC could be that team, but the Trojans aren’t getting anything close to the level of line play they need to win in the Big Ten.

Let’s look at the past weekend in the Big Ten and how much the fans suffered through these hard-to-watch games in the conference:

Cal hopes to be travel buddy/wingman for Stanford, as UCLA was for USC

UCLA will be in the #B1G only because it is attached to USC. Can Cal get into the Big Ten purely due to being Stanford’s partner?

With the Pac-12 being reduced to the Pac-4 and very possibly arriving at the end of its existence, the University of California at Berkeley faces some big decisions.

It also faces the reality that it has little control over whether it is invited to the Big Ten.

As you might be aware, Cal-Berkeley is drowning in debt. UCLA will be subsidizing Cal with the television money the Bruins get from their Big Ten deal. The UC Board of Regents, which — at least theoretically, could have blocked UCLA’s move to the Big Ten — will make sure that happens as a condition of UCLA’s Big Ten membership. Getting some of UCLA’s money is good, but that can only go so far. Cal athletics is in dire shape. Football and men’s basketball have been abysmally bad in recent years and have drawn few fans. The athletic department is in disarray. Leadership has been lacking.

The condition of Cal athletics is so poor that Cal — if it gets an invite to the Big Ten — will be invited only because of three aspects: the Bay Area media market, Cal’s academic profile and Stanford.

If UCLA is in the Big Ten primarily because it’s a travel partner for USC, Cal would make the Big Ten primarily because it would be a travel partner and geographical addition to complement Stanford.

Let’s consider the reaction to the death of the Pac-12 and how Friday’s events — creating a Pac-4 — reshape reality for the Golden Bears:

USC fans, ready for the Big Ten, get one last example of Pac-12 incompetence

This Colorado mess could be the end of the #Pac12. It’s a final reminder why #USC fans eagerly wanted out and won’t look back.

As this article is published Thursday morning (just after 10 a.m.) in Los Angeles, the door hasn’t officially closed on the Pac-12. However, all indications are that the conference is about to suffer a crippling blow at some point in the next 30 hours. Colorado is expected to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12, as Buffaloes Wire has noted.

One week ago, Pac-12 insiders were super confident not only that a deal would be reached, but that it also would be very competitive with the Big 12’s price point for its member schools. Sources said the Pac-12 CEO Group’s “patience is about to pay off.” Sources said “it will be worth the wait.”

Waiting was viewed as necessary and good. Commissioner George Kliavkoff said the longer the process went on, the better it was for the Pac-12.

Well, here we are. It should have been a warning sign — an indication of trouble — when Colorado’s athletic director, Rick George, stormed out of the Pac-12 media day event on Friday after George Kliavkoff’s disastrous press conference and public remarks.

USC fans, knowing they have a safe and lucrative home in the Big Ten next year, are feeling quite affirmed. They escaped the sinking ship just in time. They never had to worry about their future — not when the move to the Big Ten was announced one year ago. They and other West Coast college sports fans reacted to the news of the Pac-12’s possible implosion and extinction:

The best social media reactions to USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten

How social media reacted to USC and UCLA heading to the Big Ten

On Thursday afternoon, the landscape of major conference college sports was turned on its head. Los Angeles became Big Ten country as USC and UCLA bolted from the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten conference.

Reactions quickly started pouring in from all corners of the college sports world with news of two Los Angeles programs heading to a conference of schools mainly located in the midwest. Speculation about what dominoes were next to fall also dominated the discourse, as the move felt like just one of many we would see in the coming weeks and months.

Here is a look at some of the best reactions to the Bruins and Trojans heading to the Pac-12: