Ohio State football: Big Ten move is a needed one

The Big Ten’s move to admit USC and UCLA is a one that is needed. Now more than ever in the college football landscape, the Golden Rule applies: whoever has the gold makes the rules. Adding these two high-profile west coast schools is going to give the conference a lot more gold.

Why is this needed? The SEC adding their own college football heavy hitters, Texas and Oklahoma, is why. Both conferences will have sixteen teams and both will have a pile of money. Both conferences are going to be bigger and more wealthy by far than the three other Power 5 leagues (ACC, Big XII, PAC 12).

All of this takes on added importance when you consider there is talk among these schools of FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) football breaking away from the NCAA and forming their own football-only governing body. If that happens, who do you think is going to have the most power and influence? It will be the conferences whose members total nearly one-fourth of the total number of FBS schools. The Big Ten and SEC will possess 32 of the 131 FBS members.

When it was announced the SEC was expanding, speculation began immediately as to who the Big Ten might pursue. A lot of names were bandied about until a report surfaced that Kansas wasn’t just a frontrunner, but a move to the Big Ten was imminent. That obviously has not happened and probably never will.

I felt adding Iowa State to the West and Pitt to the East made the most sense. Most all of us were thinking along traditional college football lines of conferences having geographical alignment. The Big Ten power brokers obviously thought differently and when a couple of national-brand schools made themselves available, they were welcomed with open arms without a thought given to tradition or geography.

Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and his crew were not looking to add just anyone, they wanted heavyweights and that’s exactly what they got. No, USC and UCLA haven’t been tearing it up on the field lately, but from a brand and TV market standpoint, they certainly are not lightweights.

If you’re one of those people screaming how expanding to California makes no sense, you can sit down and be quiet because nobody that matters is listening. This is about money (read my article on that subject here), power, and influence. Playoff expansion is coming.

The television contract for the playoff expires in a few years. An FBS football-only governing body appears to be in the works. Let’s not forget the Big Ten TV contract expires soon. The Big Ten’s move to add USC and UCLA does nothing but strengthen them to be a major player in all of these things because of the power and influence they can wield.

Let me put this another way for those who hate this move: do you really want the SEC to be the most powerful and influential conference in college football? I sure don’t. Especially after we all saw how they tried to manipulate expanding the playoff before the TV contract expired and give their buddies at ESPN exclusive negotiating rights. Like it or not, the Big Ten added the type of schools needed to keep up with the SEC.

I defend adding USC and UCLA because I’m a realist and know we are headed for a seismic shift in college football. That doesn’t mean I like it. Supporting this move by the Big Ten just means I understand and accept the reality of what drives college football today.